By IANS
New Delhi : India and Russia Tuesday moved one step closer to a bilateral nuclear deal that will enable Moscow to build four more power reactors in Tamil Nadu after the lifting of restrictions by the Nuclear Suppliers Group.
The two strategic partners also sought to energise their business ties by pledging to double bilateral trade to $10 billion by 2010 and announced their decision to jointly set up hydrocarbon projects.
“We have finalised negotiations for an agreement on cooperation in the construction of additional nuclear power plants in India,” Manmohan Singh told reporters after his talks with Russian Prime Minister Victor A. Zubkov.
Zubkov, who arrived here Tuesday morning on a two-day official visit, held talks with Manmohan Singh on an array of bilateral, regional and global issues, including civilian nuclear cooperation.
“An agreement on building additional reactors at the Kudankulam atomic station has been initialised,” Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov later told reporters here.
The actual signing of the deal will, however, have to wait till the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) changes its guidelines permitting the resumption of global civilian nuclear cooperation with India.
Russia is already building two 1,000 megawatt light water reactors at Kudankulam as part of a deal signed in 1988.
Describing India as a “trusted friend”, Zubkov said: “We will continue to cooperate in civil nuclear energy and peaceful uses of outer space”.
The two countries had finalised the text of a bilateral nuclear pact ahead of Manmohan Singh’s visit to Moscow in November last year, but it could not be signed due to India’s principled position not to sign such a bilateral pact with any other country till a change in guidelines by the NSG.
Manmohan Singh also told Zubkov about the ongoing efforts by India to finalise a safeguards pact with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) – a key step that will pave the way for operationalisation of the Indo-US nuclear deal.
Later in the evening, Zubkov and Manmohan Singh jointly inaugurated the “Year of Russia in India” with a gala concert against the magnificent ruins of the 16th century Purana Qila fort.
Placing India-Russia relations in a global perspective, Zubkov said the ties between the two countries serve as “guarantors of a multi-polar world” and called for deepening cooperation across the spectrum.
On the economic front, India and Russia agreed to accelerate bilateral trade and investment to raise trade volume from $5 billion to $10 billion by 2010.
Zubkov is leading a 150-member business delegation that includes big Russian companies such as Sistema, Siberian Ural Energy Co (SUEK Group) and Aeroflot, among others.
“Economic interactions are one of the basic elements of the growing partnership between both the countries. Our bilateral trade grew by 30 percent and equalled to $5 billion last year,” Zubkov told a gathering of Indian business leaders while addressing the ‘India and Russia Forum on Trade and investment’ organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
“By 2010 we might touch $10 billion if we can keep our trade at this rate,” said Zubkov, who is accompanied by Russian Minister of Economic Development and Trade E.S. Nabiullina.
Earlier, Manmohan Singh said both leaders had agreed on the need to “diversify our trade basket, and expand cooperation in sectors such as minerals, diamonds, transport and infrastructure, investment and services, and high technology”.
The two leaders discussed the controversial escalation in the price by Russia of the retrofitted aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov.
The two sides agreed to find a mutually acceptable solution to this contentious issue and resolved not to allow it to cloud their longstanding defence ties.
“We reaffirmed our commitment to build upon our defence relations which is an important pillar of our strategic partnership,” Manmohan Singh said.
Cooperation in the hydrocarbon sector also figured in the discussions. India’s state-owned Oil & Natural Gas Corp. owns a 20 percent stake in Russia’s Sakhalin-1 gas fields.
“We agreed that there was vast potential for mutually beneficial cooperation in the area of hydrocarbons,” Manmohan Singh said.
The two sides also signed a memorandum of understanding on the development of cooperation in law enforcement matters between India’s Central Board of Excise and Customs and the Russian Federal Customs Service and in the field of maintaining archives.