Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin today presented the prestigious 'Order of Friendship' award to BrahMos chief A Sivathanu Pillai for his contribution towards Indo-Russian friendship.
The award, the highest Russian honour bestowed on foreign citizens, was conferred on Pillai by the President of Russian Federation Vladimir Putin for his great contribution towards strengthening of friendship and cooperation between India and Russia.
"I have the honour to decorate AS Pillai with 'Order of Friendship' award signed by the President of Russian Federation HE Vladimir Putin for his great effort invested in this large scale work in the science & industry for benefit of both India and Russia," said Rogozin at a function at the Russian embassy here.
During the award ceremony, Pillai briefed the Russain Deputy Prime Minister on the latest achievements and progress the joint venture has made in the recent years.
He was also apprised of the present status including air version development and 'Vision 2050' which has got three major programmes - BRAHMOS-Mini, C4I (network centric BRAHMOS deployment) and Hypersonic BRAHMOS-II, a BrahMos release said.
Expressing satisfaction over the progress, Rogozin remarked, "BrahMos is a hallmark of strong friendship and strategic partnership between our two nations."
Pillai thanked the Russian Government for the trust bestowed on the joint venture.
BrahMos Aerospace is a successful joint venture between India and Russia. Both the governments recently agreed to continue their partnership in the BrahMos missile programme by extending the Inter-Governmental Agreement for an indefinite period.
