(MENAFN) Russia’s lower chamber of parliament, the State Duma, has approved a new accord on military collaboration with India just days before President Vladimir Putin’s scheduled trip to the nation. The measure was endorsed during a plenary gathering of the State Duma on Tuesday.

The agreement—designed to enhance and simplify joint military exercises, emergency responses, and humanitarian operations—grants both Russia and India formal authorization to station personnel and hardware on each other’s territory.

Putin is set to embark on his tenth journey to India on December 4–5.

This marks his first visit to the South Asian nation since 2021, during which he is anticipated to explore a broad spectrum of bilateral topics with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Cooperation in the defense arena, a cornerstone of India-Russia relations since the early 1960s, is expected to feature prominently in their discussions.

New Delhi has urged defense companies from partner nations, including Russia, to collaborate with local weapons producers in support of Modi’s ‘Make in India’ campaign.

“This visit is of great importance, providing an opportunity to comprehensively discuss the extensive agenda of Russian-Indian relations of a special privileged strategic partnership in political, trade-economic, scientific-technological, and cultural-humanitarian fields, as well as to consider current international and regional issues,” the Kremlin noted in a statement last week.

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