Nuclear power cooperation with India increasing, says Putin

Mar 12, 2010, 13:12 GMT

New Delhi - Nuclear energy was an area of increasing cooperation with India, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Friday.

Addressing Indian business leaders during a video conference, Putin, who was on a one-day visit to India, said nuclear energy was a major and promising area of cooperation, PTI news agency reported.

Russia signed an agreement with India in 2008 to build four nuclear reactors at a plant in Kudankulam in the southern state of Tamil Nadu in addition to the two it was already engaged in building.

The deal followed a landmark civilian nuclear agreement between India and the United States after which the Nuclear Suppliers Group lifted a ban on trading in fissile materials and technology with India, which has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

India's Foreign Ministry spokesman Vishnu Prakash said Thursday that India had decided to offer an additional site to Russia at Haripur in the eastern state of West Bengal for building nuclear reactors.

Putin said Russia's engagement with India on nuclear energy would include building reactors, supplying fuel and waste disposal.

'India has expressed an interest for help in the disposal of nuclear waste,' Putin said during the video conference with Indian businessmen from Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Bangalore.

Asked about the safety aspect of Russian reactors, Putin said that with the Chernobyl experience during the Soviet era behind it, Russia was constantly upgrading and increasing safety features in its nuclear power plants. These would be part of the technology it would provide to India, he said.

The Russian prime minister expressed disappointment with the two-way trade between India and Russia and said it was time it expanded beyond defence.

Russia supplies between 60 and 70 per cent of India's defence equipment.

The trade turnover between Russia and India touched 7.5 billion dollars in 2009, an increase of 8 per cent over the previous year, but far below the target of 20 billion dollars by 2015 set by the two sides.

'There is political will on both sides but we need support from the captains of industry,' Putin, who was being accompanied by a 15-member delegation of Russian businessmen, said.

India and Russia are expected to sign deals worth 10 billion dollars during Putin's visit, Putin's spokesman told reporters in Moscow Thursday.

The Russian prime minister is scheduled to hold talks with his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh later Friday after which several agreements are expected to be signed, according to India's Foreign Ministry spokesman.