Bangalore: Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to India's Infotech hub has sent a strong signal of Moscow's willingness to seriously engage India in improving the bilateral economic relations in the frontier sector, India's Ambassador to Russia Kanwal Sibal said today (Dec 5, 2004).

"Putin, through his visit has sent a powerful signal of Russia's willingness to seriously engage India in developing our economical relations in the frontier sector," Sibal told reporters soon after Putin wound up his three-day visit to India.

Putin left Bangalore for Ankara, the capital of Turkey on a two-day official visit, the first by a Russian President.

Describing Putin's visit as "successful from all points of issue," Sibal said both sides believe that the objective of the Russian leader's India trip has been achieved.

"I think Russian President's visit to Infosys in Bangalore is very important in terms of what we can mutually explore in the IT sector," Sibal said, adding about 23 CEOs of Russian IT firms accompanied Putin.

"Russians are good at R&D and fast algorithms in high end IT, we are good at services and project management. It is a mutual strength we can build and cooperate in future," he said.

Sibal cited the MoUs signed in the energy, banking and other sectors in New Delhi as an opportunity for both nations to further propel their bilateral economic relations.