India To Enhance Economic Cooperation With Russia, Us

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee told Parliament today that he had discussed new areas of economic cooperation including diversification of the trade basket during his recent visit to Moscow.

In his statement, Vajpayee also said that new areas of trade in areas like information technology, infrastructure, pharmaceuticals and diamonds need to be explored in order to compensate for the reduction in India's exports financed by the rupee debt repayment.

"We discussed an institutionalised bilateral dialogue on energy security, which we hope to commence soon. India's investment in the Sakhalin project already represents a beginning of our cooperation in this field," Vajpayee added. He also said that during his visit to the United States, the two countries agreed to resume and broaden the bilateral economic dialogue and extend cooperation in the areas of energy, environment, health, biotechnology and information technology.

"We will soon initiate discussions on cooperation in space programmes and civilian nuclear safety projects," he added.