Announcing this at a joint press conference here today, Mr A.K. Antony and his Russian counterpart Mr Anatoly Serdyukov said that all issues pertaining to these two deals were discussed and resolved and 'now it is in the final stages of the Indian Government, some technical formalities between the governments is needed and we will be able to complete very soon...within a few months.'

As sources privy to the talks that preceeded the press meeting said 'the entire atmosphere was very cordial and it was generally felt that since the two countries had long standing links in defence collaboration, there was need to step up cooperation in this sector and with India stepping up its defence purchases and also focussing on indigenisation, the meeting was indeed fruitful.'

The sources said that the preliminary design contract for the FGFA would most probably be signed during the visit of the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to this country in December.

The two ministers who addressed the media at the conclusion of the 10th meeting of the India-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission on Military Technical Cooperation (IRIGC-MTC), said that both sides agreed to expedite modalities for the proposed project for the joint design, development and production of the FGFA which comes close on the heels of India likely to soon finalise the purchase of the multi-million rupee 126 Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA).

'These two projects are the major achievements of this year, and for the next 10 years these two projects, MTA (medium transport aircraft) and FGFA, will be a shining example of India and Russian defence cooperation,' Mr Antony said.

The 30-tonne stealth aircraft - each priced at around $100 million - will have very advanced avionics, stealth to increase survivability and enhanced lethality, sources said.

On the MTA project, Mr. Antony said the two countries have already signed a shareholding agreement between Russian aircraft major Sukhoi and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited.

The twin-engine MTA, fitted with modern avionics, is a 15-20 tonne payload capacity aircraft with a maximum take-off weight of up to 65 tonnes and a cruise speed of 800 kmph. The total development cost is estimated at over $600 million, to be equally shared by both sides.

'In the area of defence, Russia is our trusted partner for a long time and will remain so in the future also,' Mr. Antony said while on the delay in acquiring military hardware from Russia, including the aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov, he said all these issues 'were discussed threadbare and on most of the issues we have arrived at satisfactory solutions'.

'In the remaining issues, the Russian defence minister has personally assured me that he will take personal interest to find satisfactory solutions at the earliest. I am happy about the outcome of the discussions,' he said.

Serdyukov said India and Russia have a 'great volume of military and technical projects'.

'It is quite natural to have some delays. But I will underscore that there are no critical delays in our projects. I have also raised a number of issues today with my Indian colleague, he promised to scrutinize and I will do the same on my side in order to tackle the problems mentioned by India.'

Mr.Serdyukov who arrived yesterday for the meeting said that Russia was also going to participate in the joint exercise to be held from October 15 to 24 and would be sending 280 troops from the Southern Force Mountain Brigade of the Southern Russian Command. This is the third Indo-Russian Joint Exercise 'INDRA-10' with the first being held in October 2005 at Mahajan in India and the second in 2007 at Pskov in Russia.

'We have discussed that next year (2011), we are going to host another
exercise between Russia and India and by the end of November this year
our Chief of the General Staff will come and discuss the proposals
related to the exercise,' Mr Serdyukov said.