Moscow and New Delhi have agreed to extend their peaceful nuclear energy business. Russia’s Rosatom will build new sites in India, according to an agreement signed during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to India.
“The parties plan, in particular, to develop the project on construction of six Russia-designed nuclear power plant units in India at the new site, to expand cooperation in third countries and cooperation in new promising areas in the nuclear power industry,” the press release from Rosatom said.
The agreement was signed by Rosatom CEO Aleksey Likhachev and Indian Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Kamlesh Nilkanth Vyas on the sidelines of the Russian-Indian summit in New Delhi on Friday. The site for new NPP units is not named, but previously it was reported that it may be located in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.
Russia is one of India’s key partners in nuclear energy. Russia built the single largest nuclear power station in India, Kudankulam NPP, which was first agreed back in 1988 with the Soviet leadership. The construction began in 2002, and the NPP was launched in 2013. Since then, the plant has been expanded, and Russia is building units 3 and 4 at the plant with plans to build units 5 and 6 in the next two years.
“We are satisfied with our strategic cooperation with India, where the Russian designed nuclear power units are operating and being constructed at Kudankulam site. We expect to start implementation in the near future serial construction of new units at a second site in India,” Rosatom’s Likhachev said.
President Putin said during his meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday that the countries could expand their energy cooperation to other spheres. “We are ready to consider the possibility of cooperation in the framework of such programs as Far East LNG, Arctic LNG-2, as well as other projects for the development of natural resources of Siberia, Yamal and the continental shelf in the Russian Federation,” Putin told Modi.
The Russian president also announced that the countries have plans to boost trade to $30 billion by 2025, which is triple the current level.