New Delhi, December 21, 2005 (PTI)

India and Russia have an agreement on a long term programme of military and technical cooperation for the period upto the year 2010, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee informed the Rajya Sabha today.
The agreement signed on December 21, 1998 provides an institutional mechanism for discussion on defence cooperation with the Russian Federation in the form of "India-Russia Inter-governmental Commission on Military Technical Cooperation," he said in a written reply.

Co-chaired by Mukherjee, the fifth meeting of the commission was held in Russia on November 15-16, 2005, which reviewed the progress of the ongoing bilateral defence cooperation and discussed various issues of mutual interest in the areas of defence and security.

Both sides had expressed satisfaction at the ongoing level of defence exchanges and cooperation between the two countries, he said.