16th Indo-Russian Inter governmental Commission meeting begins in New Delhi on Thursday to prepare for the summit level meeting between the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev next month.Several new agreements are expected to be finalized in the meeting.The pacts are likely to be signed during the Russian President's visit. External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna will lead the Indian side in the talks while the Russian side will be headed by Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov. The Commission will focus on expanding economic partnership between the two countries. Briefing reporters in New Delhi, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs Ajay Bisaria said the two sides are expected to reach understandings in some more areas before the summit. AIR correspondent reports that a number of future projects will also be identified in the meeting to widen and diversify the strategic cooperation.The identification of the new projects is part of the process to deepen this partnership .Intensified cooperation in pharmaceuticals, energy, both conventional and civil nuclear, IT and telecommunications besides advanced and applied sciences and high technology needs to be seen in this protective. Trade between the two countries has registered a robust growth of 24 percent in the first seven months of the current fiscal .The target is 20 billion US dollars by 2015 .Foreign policy experts say it is high time for India and Russia to work together to shape a viable world architecture and new security paradigm.