diff --git a/R/pkg/NAMESPACE b/R/pkg/NAMESPACE
index 450aacfb51718..920e1b7f598de 100644
--- a/R/pkg/NAMESPACE
+++ b/R/pkg/NAMESPACE
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@ exportMethods(
               "fullOuterJoin",
               "glom",
               "groupByKey",
+              "intersection",
               "join",
               "keyBy",
               "keys",
diff --git a/R/pkg/R/RDD.R b/R/pkg/R/RDD.R
index eb970a09c0f17..125ea0110001a 100644
--- a/R/pkg/R/RDD.R
+++ b/R/pkg/R/RDD.R
@@ -1560,3 +1560,40 @@ setMethod("zipRDD",
             
             PipelinedRDD(zippedRDD, partitionFunc)
           })
+
+#' Intersection of this RDD and another one.
+#'
+#' Return the intersection of this RDD and another one.
+#' The output will not contain any duplicate elements, 
+#' even if the input RDDs did. Performs a hash partition
+#' across the cluster.
+#' Note that this method performs a shuffle internally. 
+#'
+#' @param x An RDD.
+#' @param other An RDD.
+#' @param numPartitions The number of partitions in the result RDD.
+#' @return An RDD which is the intersection of these two RDDs.
+#' @examples
+#'\dontrun{
+#' sc <- sparkR.init()
+#' rdd1 <- parallelize(sc, list(1, 10, 2, 3, 4, 5))
+#' rdd2 <- parallelize(sc, list(1, 6, 2, 3, 7, 8))
+#' collect(sortBy(intersection(rdd1, rdd2), function(x) { x }))
+#' # list(1, 2, 3)
+#'}
+#' @rdname intersection
+#' @aliases intersection,RDD
+setMethod("intersection",
+          signature(x = "RDD", other = "RDD"),
+          function(x, other, numPartitions = SparkR::numPartitions(x)) {
+            rdd1 <- map(x, function(v) { list(v, NA) })
+            rdd2 <- map(other, function(v) { list(v, NA) })
+            
+            filterFunction <- function(elem) {
+              iters <- elem[[2]]
+              all(as.vector(
+                lapply(iters, function(iter) { length(iter) > 0 }), mode = "logical"))
+            }
+
+            keys(filterRDD(cogroup(rdd1, rdd2, numPartitions = numPartitions), filterFunction))
+          })
diff --git a/R/pkg/R/generics.R b/R/pkg/R/generics.R
index b7d03944431e8..99e377cda4817 100644
--- a/R/pkg/R/generics.R
+++ b/R/pkg/R/generics.R
@@ -233,7 +233,6 @@ setGeneric("zipWithUniqueId", function(x) { standardGeneric("zipWithUniqueId") }
 
 
 ############ Binary Functions #############
-
 #' @rdname countByKey
 #' @export
 setGeneric("countByKey", function(x) { standardGeneric("countByKey") })
@@ -242,6 +241,11 @@ setGeneric("countByKey", function(x) { standardGeneric("countByKey") })
 #' @export
 setGeneric("flatMapValues", function(X, FUN) { standardGeneric("flatMapValues") })
 
+#' @rdname intersection
+#' @export
+setGeneric("intersection", function(x, other, numPartitions = 1L) {
+  standardGeneric("intersection") })
+
 #' @rdname keys
 #' @export
 setGeneric("keys", function(x) { standardGeneric("keys") })
diff --git a/R/pkg/inst/tests/test_rdd.R b/R/pkg/inst/tests/test_rdd.R
index f75e0817b9406..fc0607ae1de60 100644
--- a/R/pkg/inst/tests/test_rdd.R
+++ b/R/pkg/inst/tests/test_rdd.R
@@ -468,6 +468,22 @@ test_that("zipRDD() on RDDs", {
   unlink(fileName)
 })
 
+test_that("intersection() on RDDs", {
+  # intersection with self
+  actual <- collect(intersection(rdd, rdd))
+  expect_equal(sort(as.integer(actual)), nums)
+  
+  # intersection with an empty RDD
+  emptyRdd <- parallelize(sc, list())
+  actual <- collect(intersection(rdd, emptyRdd))
+  expect_equal(actual, list())
+  
+  rdd1 <- parallelize(sc, list(1, 10, 2, 3, 4, 5))
+  rdd2 <- parallelize(sc, list(1, 6, 2, 3, 7, 8))
+  actual <- collect(intersection(rdd1, rdd2))
+  expect_equal(sort(as.integer(actual)), 1:3)
+})
+
 test_that("join() on pairwise RDDs", {
   rdd1 <- parallelize(sc, list(list(1,1), list(2,4)))
   rdd2 <- parallelize(sc, list(list(1,2), list(1,3)))
diff --git a/pkg/man/intersection.Rd b/pkg/man/intersection.Rd
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..7ec6debb3dc08
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkg/man/intersection.Rd
@@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
+% Generated by roxygen2 (4.0.2): do not edit by hand
+\docType{methods}
+\name{intersection,RDD,RDD-method}
+\alias{intersection}
+\alias{intersection,RDD}
+\alias{intersection,RDD,RDD-method}
+\title{Intersection of this RDD and another one.}
+\usage{
+\S4method{intersection}{RDD,RDD}(x, other,
+  numPartitions = SparkR::numPartitions(x))
+
+intersection(x, other, numPartitions = 1L)
+}
+\arguments{
+\item{x}{An RDD.}
+
+\item{other}{An RDD.}
+}
+\value{
+An RDD which is the intersection of these two RDDs.
+}
+\description{
+Return the intersection of this RDD and another one.
+The output will not contain any duplicate elements,
+even if the input RDDs did. Performs a hash partition
+across the cluster.
+Note that this method performs a shuffle internally.
+}
+\examples{
+\dontrun{
+sc <- sparkR.init()
+rdd1 <- parallelize(sc, list(1, 10, 2, 3, 4, 5))
+rdd2 <- parallelize(sc, list(1, 6, 2, 3, 7, 8))
+collect(sortBy(intersection(rdd1, rdd2), function(x) { x }))
+# list(1, 2, 3)
+}
+}
+