Medvedev to focus on stronger bilateral cooperation with India.

MOSCOW, December 20 (Itar-Tass) - Nuclear power, space exploration,
information technologies, aircraft building, oil and gas industry and
stronger bilateral trade will top the agenda of the talks between Russian
President Dmitry Medvedev and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
"Stronger cooperation with India in the energy sector, including
nuclear power, will be considered," Russian presidential aide Sergei
Prikhodko said in an interview with Itar-Tass on the eve of Medvedev's
visit to India.
"The largest joint projects in this sector are the construction of the
Kudankulam nuclear power plant in southern India with Russia's
collaboration and the Sakhalin-1 oil and gas development project with
participation of India's Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC)," he said.
"Russia is interested in securing its footing on India's market and is
confident in its competitive advantages in building nuclear power plants,"
he said. Prikhodko reiterated that expansion of nuclear cooperation with
India was banned by the Nuclear Suppliers Group. At present, India shows
interest in joining the Group and unlike other countries demonstrates
readiness to respond to all questions.
At present, Russia is building two reactors at the Kudankulam nuclear
power plant. Under the roadmap for the development of Russia-India nuclear
power cooperation twelve reactors should be built in India.
Earlier, the head of the Russian nuclear power corporation Rosatom,
Sergei Kiriyenko, said two of the twelve reactors are being built, another
six will be built in 2012-2017 and another four - after 2017. He did not
rule out that the number of reactors can be increased after 2017.
"Cooperation with India in nuclear power should be absolutely
transparent, therefore the signing of all required documents is
obligatory," Prikhodko said.
During Medvedev's visit to India a memorandum of understanding in
civil nuclear power is expected to be signed.
As for cooperation in the oil and gas industry the aide noted that
Indian companies are interested in cooperating with Russia not only in the
Sakhalin projects, but also in the Caspian offshore fields.
"During the visit a legal base will be created and in compliance with
it India's companies will be able to expand the list of the projects in
Russia," he said.
The Kremlin aide noted that military and technical cooperation will be
also discussed at the talks. "After all problems on the Admiral Gorshkov
aircraft carrier were resolved, the talks on promoting Russia's aircraft
will begin," he said.
"Our cooperation with India is not mainly based on raw material
supplies, it also focuses on aircraft building, including the creation of
a fifth generation jet, space exploration and metallurgy," Prikhodko said.
He assured that the Russia side "is ready for stronger cooperation in
building civil aircraft, including wide-body planes, and is interested in
promoting its Superjet, An-140 and Be-200 to the Indian market." "It also
hopes that the Indian side will use Russia's Glonass global navigation
satellite system."
"Russian-Indian trade and economic cooperation develops dynamically.
Over the decade of strategic partnership the bilateral trade increased
almost six-fold. In 2009 it comprised 7.5 billion U.S. dollars," Prikhodko
said.
"The global financial crisis could not divert positive dynamics in the
Russian-Indian trade. According to the Russian Economic Development
Ministry's forecast, in 2010 the trade can reach 9.8-10.1 billion U.S.
dollars," he said.
"We have reasons to be proud of our trade and economic relations,
therefore the task of bringing the trade turnover to 20 billion U.S.
dollars by 2015 looks more than realistic," Prikhodko said.
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