An agreement for Russian supplies of $U.S. 700 million worth of nuclear fuel for Indian power plants has been sealed in New Delhi. The deal was struck during Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s first-ever visit to India.
Another contract provides that Russia will build four energy blocs at the Kudankulam power plant in addition to the two currently under construction. According to the chief of the state nuclear corporation Rosatom, Sergey Kirienko, the two sides are also negotiating the construction of at least one nuclear power facility comparable in scale to Kudankulam. Russia will also supply India with 80 MI-17B-5 helicopters. A Memorandum of Understanding for cooperation in manned space flights has also been signed between Russia’s space agency Roskosmos and the Indian Space Research Organisation. The head of Roskosmos, Anatoly Perminov, said that under this document the Russian space shuttle Soyuz will take an Indian cosmonaut into space by 2013. Russia and India have agreed to cooperate in the spheres of finance and financial security, tourism, culture and fighting drug trafficking.