The India-US N-deal may be coming apart, but unfazed whether India gets the NSG waiver or not, Russia is willing to provide four more nuclear reactors.
May offer four more reactors for Koodankulam plant
NEW DELHI: The India-US N-deal may be coming apart, but unfazed whether India gets the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) waiver or not, Russia is willing to provide four more nuclear reactors for the Koodankulam power plant in Tamil Nadu. The agreement is still being worked out, and officials are not yet ready to give it a thumbs-up.
Hiccups regarding the logistics of PM Manmohan Singh’s visit to Moscow on Sunday notwithstanding, it is likely to be a substantive one with energy, defence and trade topping the agenda.
While a deal on the supply of the four reactors is likely to be signed, Moscow will have to take a call on its implementation. There could be a provision that the reactors will be supplied only after India gets the NSG to lift curbs.
Nuclear commerce is prohibited with India because New Delhi has refused to sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
The Russians are trying to justify the four power reactors on the grounds that the Koodankulam agreement was signed in 1989, when Russia was not a member of the NSG. The argument will be that the additional four units are part of an ongoing project and will not be affected by the NSG guidelines. Russia became a member of the NSG only in 1992.
When President Vladimir Putin was in Delhi in January he had announced that keeping in mind India’s enormous demand for power, Russia would help New Delhi set up additional units in the Tamil Nadu power plant. This has now been extended to four. But Putin had made it clear at the news conference that this would happen only after India got the NSG waiver.
The American were furious about the public declaration, saying while they were in the middle of negotiating the Indo-US nuclear deal, the Russian President found it fit to make such an announcement. Privately American officials said New Delhi had no business to allow President Putin to make the announcement when the NSG sanctions were still in place.
While one section of the Russian establishment is keen to go ahead with the agreement, there are others who believe that the NSG guidelines must not be flouted. But with Russia’s ties with the US and other Western powers becoming more testy by the day, many believe that Moscow can afford to defy the international community and keep New Delhi in its fold.
The Russians are concerned about India’s growing warmth with the US and the fact that New Delhi has refused to speak up on issues like missile defence, which is a major worry for Moscow. ``As a good friend who has always come to India’s help and spoken out for India on issues like Kashmir innumerable times, Russia would like some reciprocity,’’ says MK Bhadrakumar a former foreign service officer and analyst.
A major defence deal for the co-production of the fifth generation Sukhoi aircraft will be signed during the Prime Minister’s visit. An MoU on ONGC getting another block in the Sakhlin oil field in Siberia is also on the cards.
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