MOSCOW, May 8. /TASS/. India maintains a strong interest in collaborating with Russia in training its cosmonauts for long-duration manned missions and creating appropriate conditions on the orbital station, Pyotr Topychkanov, head of the Section for New Challenges in South and Southeast Asia at the Center of the Indo-Pacific Region at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IMEMO RAS), told TASS in an interview.
"A very important aspect for which India remains dependent on us is cooperation in cosmonaut training, conditions for them on spacecraft and space stations, and the overall operation of space stations. Other countries may boast and claim to have such capabilities, but the Soviet and Russian experience is unique, and no one else has such experience yet. Essentially, India has no other alternative to us with whom to interact and study this experience," the expert emphasized.
Moreover, the IMEMO RAS expert believes that Russia could accept an Indian specialist aboard the Russian orbital station, and a Russian cosmonaut would be "gladly welcomed" to the Indian national space station once it is launched into orbit. "I think this would, in theory, be a completely normal practice, consistent with the spirit of cooperation between Russia and India, because a high level of trust has developed between our countries, including in strategic technologies," Topychkanov concluded.