The next Russian nuclear reactor plant is likely to come up in Andhra Pradesh, according to Russian Consul-General at Chennai Sergei Kotov. Initiating a discussion on "President Putin's Visit and India-Russia Relations" at ORF Chennai Chapter on January 3, Kotov confirmed that the next plant will not be constructed in Tamil Nadu.
The next Russian nuclear reactor plant is likely to come up in Andhra Pradesh, according to Russian Consul-General at Chennai Sergei Kotov.
Initiating a discussion on "President Putin’s Visit and India-Russia Relations" at ORF Chennai Chapter on January 3, Kotov confirmed that the next plant will not be constructed in Tamil Nadu.
As agreed in the recent Delhi Summit between President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, at least 10 nuclear reactors are planned with Russia, Kotov said.
Kotov pointed out that an important agenda-point discussed at the Delhi summit was the cooperation in nuclear energy. He said some problems regarding used fuel from the nuclear reactors are still to be sorted out.
Talking about Putin’s meeting with Modi in New Delhi, the third between the two since the latter took office in May 2014, Kotov recalled how the two leaders had met each other on the sidelines of the 2014 BRICS Summit in Brazil and later at the G-20 Summit held in Australia.
The Delhi meeting, another edition of the oldest of India’s bilateral annual summits with other nations, was significant in the contemporary context, particularly for post-Ukraine Russia. The change of political guard in India, too, made a difference, as it was also the substantive discussion between the two governments, since, at the highest level.
Reaffirming the status of the bilateral relations between India and Russia as of traditional strategic allies, these summits were certainly dominated by a number of defence agreements. There were also important talks and agreements on areas such as nuclear energy, bilateral trade, socio-cultural exchange and technology sharing. Russia has consistently been the traditional supplier of military hardware and a trusted strategic ally to India for decades. There was thus a great focus on reaffirming these ties amidst the changing foreign policies of both nations in recent times. While India was moving more closer to the West and Israel for defence procurement, Russia has recently agreed to supply Mi-35 helicopters to Pakistan, which should be a cause for India’s worries. But Kotov reemphasised the fact that Russia’s improving ties with Pakistan would never be at the cost of India’s friendship.
As he pointed out, bilateral summits between India and Russia had witnessed some major defence deals that were inked in these summits to further strengthen the defence cooperation between the two nations. The list included some talks on the joint development of the fifth-generation stealth fighter T-50. There were some issues where Russia had been reluctant to share the stealth technology with India.
The agreements/talks also included the extension of manufacturing licence for T-90 main battle talk (MBT), and the timely supply of spare parts for India’s air superiority fighter Sukhoi-30 MKI. Finally, bilateral defence cooperation also included the manufacture of 400 units of KA-226T advanced helicopters in India. Under the scheme, not only would be able to manufacture but also export under Prime Minister Modi’s ’Make in India’ call.
Less trade than with Germany
Despite such defence cooperation, Indo-Russian bilateral trade stood at only $10 billion in 2013, Kotov said. He noted that despite his country’s very good ties with New Delhi, even countries like Germany have better level of trade relations with India.
India’s trade with China was worth nearly $ 100 b, nearly 10 times more than with Russia.
Kotov said Russia has been supporting India for a permanent membership in the UN Security Council. It has also been recommending for India’s membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), of which Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan are now the members.
Talking about the cultural relations between the two countries, Mr. Kotov revealed that there was a proposal to erect statues of icons of Russia and India in each other’s countries. A statue of Russian poet Alexander Pushkin will be erected in Chennai while that of Tamil poet Thiruvalluar will be installed in Volgograd University. This proposal is as per the ’Sister City’ status between Chennai and Volgograd.
Space technology
On space technology, there would be cooperation between the ISRO and Russian Federal Space Agency at all levels. There was significant focus on the bilateral trade agreements in the summit mainly due to the fall of the Russian rubble following western sanctions. President Putin will attend the International Diamond Summit to boost the diamond sector in the two countries. Russia with 52 per cent of all diamonds mined in the world hopes to increase the direct selling of rough diamonds from Russian mines to India.
Asked about President Putin’s popularity in Russia, given the ongoing economic turbulence following the fall of rubble owing to western sanctions, Kotov said that the increasing global criticism has only increased Putin’s popularity in Russia. He contrasted it with the former President of the erstwhile Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, who was popular with the international community but was unpopular domestically.
Kotov denied reports of the sanctions having any significant impact among the Russians, and said that the sanctions were illegal as they were not authorised by the UN.
(This report is prepared by Vignesh Rajendran, II Year MA, Department of Defence and Strategic Studies, University of Madras, Chennai)
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