New Delhi
17 March 2006
Appreciating Russia's decision to supply nuclear fuel to Tarapur
atomic power station, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh on Friday said New Delhi and
Moscow will expand their partnership in civilian nuclear energy. He also said Russia
was welcome to participate in the construction of the India-Pakistan-Iran gas pipeline.
Addressing a joint news conference with visiting Russian premier Mikhail Fradkov after
concluding delegation-level talks at Hyderabad House, Dr Singh said India was
"desperately short" of hydrocarbon resources and would therefore be interested in
entering into bilateral and trilateral agreements.
Doing so will help reduce the "energy gap" and give an impetus to the accelerated
development of India's burgeoning economy, he said. "We see the Kudankulam project
(2 x 1000 MW capacity which is under construction) as a flagship of our cooperation" in
the field of nuclear energy, he observed.
Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov, in turn, said the Gazprom company will want to
explore opportunities of meeting India's energy requirement. Russia, he said, has
experience in constructing pipelines and ways and means could be evolved to involve
Moscow in the pipeline project.
Mr Fradkov suggested that certain "extraordinary" and "quick, rapid" measures were
needed to translate the political ties into economic relations. He cited telecom, aircraft
service, airport, roads, space, civilian nuclear energy and IT as some of the sectors
where India and Russia could set up joint ventures.
The agreements signed were:
* between the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the Federal Space Agency
(ROSCOSMOS) for launching of Russian navigation satellites GLONASS-M by a variant of
Indian Geo-Synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV);
* between ISRO and ROSCOSMOS on joint development of GLONASS navigation
satellites GLONASS-K;
* between Vneshtorg Bank and EXIM Bank of India on new credit line;
* on cooperation between ICICI Bank and Vnesheconom Bank;
* on cooperation between Confederation of Indian Industry [CII] and the Russian Union of
Industries & Enterprises [RUIE];
* between the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry [FICCI] and the
Indo-Russian Business Council set up by the Russian Federation Chamber of Commerce
& Industry [RFCCI] and the Expert Magazine of Russia; and
* a memorandum on understanding (MoU) on cooperation between Indian Oil Corporation
and Stroytransgaz.
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