Russia – India nuclear energy cooperation
Presently, Russia is India’s top most partner in nuclear cooperation,

February 2010 update

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will undertake a visit to India in March 2010, during which the two countries are expected to sign a pact that will enable Russia to build more atomic reactors in India.

Discussions in this regard were finalized when Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergey Sobyanin met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and External Affairs Minister S M Krishna in New Delhi in mid-February. Putin will visit India some time in the middle of March, sources said.

Sobyanin and officials accompanying him discussed the dates for the visit with their counterparts here, they said. During the visit, the two sides are expected to sign a pact enabling Russia to build more nuclear reactors at Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu and new ones at Haripur in West Bengal.

Vladimir Putin will be visiting New Delhi barely three months after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited Moscow to renew the strategic partnership and sign a second 10-year military cooperation agreement. On the margins of Putin’s visit, the deal for the aircraft carrier, Admiral Gorshkov, in the making since 2004, will be finally signed for $2.34 billion, thereby bringing to a close the acrimonious chapter in price negotiations. Delhi will also pick up another squadron of Su-30 MKIs, it is reported.

The Indian government has approved a project to build a nuclear power plant in Haripur, West Bengal, with the assistance of Russia. Under bilateral nuclear cooperation agreements six units will be built in Kudankulam in the southern state of Tamil Nadu and four to six will be built in Haripur in West Bengal.