Russian-Indian nuclear cooperation moves in right direction - Rogozin

NEW DELHI, December 8 /TASS/. Russian-Indian cooperation in the peaceful use of atom is moving in the right direction, Russian Vice-Premier Dmitry Rogozin told TASS on Tuesday after talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his National Security Adviser Ajit Doval during a one-day working visit to New Delhi. "The two sides discussed further development of the Kudankulam nuclear power plant as well as the construction of new Russia-designed NPPs at other sites in India. I would not like to forestall the results of the forthcoming bilateral summit due to take place in Moscow on December 24-25 but I can say that we are moving in the right direction," Rogozin emphasized. Russia is building the Kudankulam nuclear power plant in India under the 1988 inter-governmental agreement and the 1998 addition to it. The station’s first nuclear power unit is the most powerful and safest in India. It meets all modern safety standards. The unit was included in India’s national energy grid in 2013 and handed over to the annual period of guarantee maintenance ending in late 2015. Pre-starting works are under way at the second nuclear power unit. Russia and India signed the master framework agreement for the construction of the second stage (the third and fourth power units) of the Kudankulam NPP in spring 2014. In December the same year, the sides signed documents allowing the construction to begin. In December 2014, Moscow and New Delhi signed a document on strategic vision of serial construction of nuclear power units in India by using Russian technologies. The document outlines plans for the construction of more than 20 nuclear power units in India; cooperation in the construction of Russia-designed NPPs in third countries as well as joint uranium extraction; the production of nuclear fuel and nuclear waste disposal. According to Rogozin, Russia needs India as a major trade and economic partner in the first place. "In conditions of sectoral sanctions, which have been imposed on Russia (though it is fighting them with its economic dynamism), we still need a big partner that can fill the vacant niches of cooperation that appeared after our retaliatory measures," the Russian vice-premier said. "I am confident that they should and can be filled with Indian manufacturers," Rogozin told TASS. "Previously, it could seem that we were focused on military-technological cooperation. It is no longer so. We need India as a major trade and economic partner in the first place in conditions when we can no longer maintain economic interaction with partners like Turkey because they have indeed been treacherous and cunning and have committed something, which is going to throw our relations far back," the Russian vice-premier went on to say. According to Rogozin, Russia and India should develop trade and economic relations to fill the enormous vacuum, which has been created. Rogozin said that a strong-willed solution on long-standing problems, including a couple of failed projects, which had plagued the Russian-Indian relations over the past years, would lead to an upsurge of bilateral trade and economic ties. Read more