Russia may set up 20-24 nuclear energy units in India as the two sides are likely to come out with a road map for cooperation in the energy sector during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit for annual summit talks on Thursday. Russia is also learnt to be eager to be a part of PM Narendra Modis ‘make-in-India’ project in a big way.
Briefing mediapersons ahead of Putin’s visit, Russia’s ambassador to New Delhi, Alexander Kadakin, said his country “may set up a total of 20-24 nuclear energy units in India against previously agreed 14-16”.
The two sides are likely to start negotiations over setting up of units 5 and 6 at the Kudankulam nuclear power complex soon and may sign a technical pact for units 3 and 4 during Putin’s visit. Responding to a query, Kadakin said trial run for unit 2 of the Kudankulam plant should start in March and that technical glitches in unit 1 were being resolved. “Russia had agreed to help India build 14-16 nuclear units. Now, it seems that India’s demand is much bigger and this may rise to 20-24 units,” he said.
Russia has agreed to make ‘civil and light aircraft in India’, a move welcomed by India. If Russia — India’s biggest defence partner — makes a shift to making defence products in India, it will give a big boost to the ‘make-in-india’ campaign. Another area where Moscow appears keen is infrastructure. The envoy said Russian businessmen had shown a lot of interest in Modi’s ‘make-in-India’ scheme and a number of them were already in touch with potential Indian partners.
“There was some kind of a lull in our bilateral exchanges, but now our relations have entered a stage of strategic and privileged partnership,” said Kadakin. Responding to the ‘make-in-India’ pitch, Kadakin said Russia had been doing so for “many many decades now”.