NEW DELHI, Dec. 2 (Xinhuanet) -- India and Russia announced Thursday that they would hold their first-ever joint army exercisenext year and increase their investment in a joint venture that makes the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile.

    The announcement was made after the conclusion of a two-day meeting of the Indo-Russian Inter-Governmental Commission on Military-Technical Cooperation, the Indo-Asian News Service reported.

    Indian Defense Minister Pranab Mukherjee and his Russian counterpart Sergei Ivanov told a joint news conference here that the two sides had agreed to sign an agreement to protect intellectual property rights associated with Russian military technology transferred to India.

    Ivanov said the two sides had transformed their long-standing military ties from a "buyer-seller relationship" into a strategic partnership to jointly develop hi-tech military hardware like the BrahMos that can be sold to other countries. Enditem