India signs nuclear pact with Russia during PM Singh’s visit

• India on December 7, 2009 signed a civil nuclear agreement with Russia that will guarantee uninterrupted uranium fuel supplies for its atomic reactors and transfer of technology. The agreements were signed after talks between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev at the Kremlin in Moscow.

• In contrast to the 123 Agreement with the U.S., the India-Russia pact guarantees uninterrupted fuel supplies in case of termination of cooperation and gives reprocessing rights to India. The pact also has provisions for transfer of enrichment and nuclear technology to India, which is denied in the 123 agreement.

• The agreement would deepen the already existing nuclear cooperation between the two countries under which four additional nuclear reactors would be set up by Russia in Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu. A site for four more reactors at Haripur has been identified in West Bengal.

• Russian President Medvedev made it clear that his country would pursue atomic cooperation with India regardless of a G-8 resolution in July 2009 that denies grant of Enrichment and Reprocessing Right (ENR) to countries which are not signatories of the NPT.

The two countries also decided to set a trade target of USD 20 billion by 2015 from the existing level of around USD seven billion.

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