Russia offers India 4 nuclear reactors
Jan. 25, 2007 13:54 | Updated Jan. 25, 2007 13:58
Russia offers to build India 4 nuclear reactors
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Russian President Vladimir Putin offered to build four new nuclear reactors for energy starved India on Thursday, cementing his country's traditional role as India's main nuclear benefactor.
A memorandum of understanding on the plants was inked by the heads of the Russian and Indian nuclear agencies after a meeting between Putin and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Putin arrived in India on Thursday, hoping to use the two nations' decades-long friendship to push for deals in civilian nuclear cooperation, military hardware and trade expansion between the booming economies.
Russia has been eager to reassert its traditional role as the chief supplier of nuclear technology and know-how to India in the wake of a landmark civilian nuclear cooperation deal between New Delhi and Washington last year that appeared to give US companies a strong position in India's nuclear market.
Russia is currently helping India build two 1,000-megawatt nuclear reactors in the southern town of Kudankulam.