India and Russia sign deal for new nuclear plants

[Naveed Yaseen]

NEW DELHI (December 06 2008): Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed agreements on Friday to develop new nuclear plants in India as the countries sought to deepen ties beyond their historic defence and weapon-sales relationship. The deal will allow Russia to build more reactors at the Kudankulam nuclear power plant in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu and plants elsewhere in country, the Indian government said in a statement.

The agreement comes after India earlier this year signed a nuclear pact with the United States, giving New Delhi access to civilian nuclear fuel and technology on the international market for the first time in three decades. Overturning a US ban on nuclear trade instituted after India first tested an atomic device in 1974, the US pact provides India with access to nuclear fuel, reactors and technology to generate power for its 1.1 billion plus people.

"The signing of the agreement on civil nuclear co-operation with Russia marks a new milestone in the history of our co-operation with Russia in the field of nuclear energy," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said at a news conference with Medvedev. Russia is competing with the United States for influence in India, a Cold War ally of Moscow which the Kremlin sees as a growing partner in Asia.

"The co-operation in the energy sector remains a priority for us," Medvedev said. "We are very interested in developing co-operation in the nuclear sector. It is especially important now that various energy sectors are being developed." Both countries signed a contract for India to buy 80 Mi-17 transport helicopters (Mi-17), worth more than $1 billion, said Anatoly Isaikin, head of Russia's state-run arms-export monopoly Rosoboron.

India, which wants to buy billions of dollars of weapons as it rearms, has been unhappy with hold-ups on major Russian arms contracts, including a delay to a $1.5 billion aircraft carrier modernisation. "Our main task is to switch from buying or selling weapons to jointly designing and producing them. We have such plans in rocket building and aviation," Medvedev said.

India, along with China, is one of Russia's biggest clients for arms sales. The two also signed a deal to cooperate on future manned space flight, and on building an astronaut training centre, said Anatoly Perminov, head of Russia's space agency Roskosmos.

An Indian astronaut is expected to fly on the Soyuz rocket in 2013, he said. India plans to send an astronaut into space with its own rocket by 2014 to become only the fourth nation after China, the United States and the former Soviet Union to do so. India launched its first unmanned moon mission Chandrayaan-1 on October 22, joining the Asian space race in the wake of rival China.

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