India, Russia to sign upto 9 pacts during PM's visit next week to Moscow

New Delhi, Dec 7 (PTI) India and Russia are expected to sign upto nine agreements in the fields of military, energy and trade during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Moscow next week and are on course to finalise a pact to build Kudankulam nuclear plant's third and fourth units. Russian Ambassador Alexander Kadakin spoke about the prospects of the two countries signing seven to nine pacts at a news conference where he also said Russian Navy will "soon" hand over to India the Akula-II class nuclear submarine K-152 Nerpa to be rechristened INS Chakra. Singh leaves for Moscow on December 15 on a three-day visit to attend the annual India-Russia Summit the next day. Kadakin said despite the "internal" problems in India on the Kudankulam plant of Tamil Nadu, Russia is looking forward to expand its nuclear cooperation with this country. The commissioning of the first two reactors at the plant in Tirunelveli district in the southern Indian state has been stalled due to protests by locals. "We are looking for agreement not just for units three and four but also units five and six and seven and eight and beyond," he added. Kadakin declined to give any specfic time-frame for the delivery of the nuclear attack submarine. Russian Navy chief Admiral Vladimir Vysotsky recently said the Indian crew is "now absolutely prepared" for operating the submarine which will be on a 10-year lease. The lease contract is estimated at some 900 million USD. Elaborating on Indo-Russian defence ties, which has been the bedrock of bilateral cooperation, Kadakin said work on development of the ambitious co-production of the fifth generation fighter aircraft was proceeding well. "Work on the aircraft is proceeding well. There are no obstacles," he added. Kadakin hoped that the civil nuclear liability rules framed by India will not hamper atomic cooperation between India and Russia. "We are hopeful that the rules will not come in the way of implementation of the grand plan of nuclear cooperation (between India and Russia)," he said. The first two reactors at Kudankulam will not be governed by the country's nuke liability laws as the agreement was signed several years ago. Kadakin also said India would continue to enjoy the waiver it received in 2008 from the Nuclear Suppliers Group's(NSG) export ban. His comments came against the backdrop of India objecting to the new guidelines adopted this year by the NSG on the export of nuclear enrichment and reprocessing equipment which include membership in the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) as a condition for supply. The Russian Ambassador voiced concern at the low level of Indo-Russian trade for which a target of 20 billion dollars has been fixed for 2015. The current bilateral trade volume is around 10 billion dollars. In contrast, he said the trade between Russia and China was around 60 billion dollars. Kadakin spoke in glowing terms about the state of Indo-Russian ties, saying no power on earth can stop the two countries from expanding their cooperation in various spheres. "India is a superpower in the making," he said, adding that the two countries enjoyed a "special and privileged" partnership. The Ambassador also expressed confidence that delays in supply of military spare parts will be sorted out by next year. PTI