India, Russia sign "milestone" agreement on N cooperation

New Delhi, Dec 5 (PTI) India and Russia Friday signed an agreement on civil nuclear cooperation with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh describing it as a "new milestone" in bilateral relations.

"The signing of the agreement on civil nuclear cooperation with Russia marks a new milestone in the history of our cooperation with Russia in the field of nuclear energy," Singh told a joint press conference with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who is on a three-day visit, here.

Under the agreement, Russia will build four additional atomic reactors in the Koodankulam nuclear plant in Tamil Nadu.

Besides signing a joint declaration, India and Russia
also signed ten agreements on cooperation in various subjects
including tourism and space.

Singh, after signing a joint declaration with
Medvedev, said both the countries have taken "yet another step
forward" through joint action in human space flight programme.

Observing that both countries have decided to increase
the trade volume to USD 10 billion by 2010, the Prime Minister
said they discussed the possibilities of greater cooperation
between Indian and Russian companies, both in upstream and
down stream sectors.

"We also agreed to increase defence cooperation," he
said.

Noting that people of India have a "great goodwill"
for Russia, Singh said New Delhi "appreciated" Moscow's
expression of solidarity with the country after the Mumbai
terror attacks.