Russia to build 12 nuclear reactors in India
The head of Russia's state atomic agency says an agreement has been reached with India to build 12 nuclear reactors. Six of them will be delivered between 2012 and 2017.
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The announcement was made during a visit to India by Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin. The deal is part of more than a dozen arms and energy pacts worth around 10 billion dollars the Russian premier is expected to sign.
Earlier Putin said it was time for the former Cold War allies to boost trade beyond the limited scope of defence.
Bilateral trade between Russia and India currently stands at just over 7.5 billion dollars and both countries want to increase this to 20 billion dollars by 2015.
During a live webcast with leading Indian businessmen, the prime minister said both countries should look to the future and that co-operation in high technology was a priority.
Indian officials believe that energy is emerging as a focus between oil and gas-rich Russia and energy-starved India. A foreign ministry official said that New Delhi had already invested two billion euros in an oil filed on Sakhalin island off Russia's east coast. It is also in talks with energy firms Rosneft and Gazprom for more blocks in north Russia.
Meanwhile, Moscow is expected to begin soon the construction of a nuclear power facility in the eastern India state of West Bengal.
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