India, Russia seek better relations through nukes
- Source: Global Times
- [08:21 March 17 2010]
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Illustration: Liu Rui
By Swaran Singh
Nineteen agreements spanning nuclear power, space technology and defense procurements were signed on Saturday during Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's visit to India. These are reported to be worth over $10 billion, injecting a new life into their strategic partnership.
This brings Russia back to the center stage of Indian strategic planning, but also highlights the inherent limits of the much touted Indian-US nuclear deal that is believed having transformed India's power profile.
Addressing the press after their meeting last Friday, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh declared Russia as a "key pillar of our foreign policy and a valuable strategic partner" with clear allusions to its implications for other major strategic partners of New Delhi, such as China and the US.
On the top of the pile is their Inter- Government Agreement on Cooperation in the use of Atomic Energy for Peaceful Purposes. According to this, Russia will construct 16 new nuclear power reactors in three different locations in India by 2017.
As a follow-up to similar deals with the US and France, this visit was meant to chalk out the road map for Indian- Russian civilian nuclear cooperation in general.
But unlike other major players in nuclear commerce, Russia is promising flexible terms in transfer of technologies finally enabling India to indigenously build nuclear reactors and develop whole range of other skills.
While the US has been grouchy about the transfer of fuel enrichment technologies to India, Russia's state nuclear corporation chief Sergei Kiriyenko revealed that India and Russia are setting up a joint venture for joint production of nuclear fuel in Russia and India.
This process is expected to begin with India taking up Moscow's offer to participate in an international nuclear fuel enrichment center at Angarsk (Siberia). The two will also be developing a joint venture to prospect and mine uranium fields in Yakutia and Elkon in Russia.
Given Russian mining presence in Mongolia and Kazakhstan, this could be a larger partnership, making Russia the major supplier of fuel for Indian nuclear reactors. This should force a rethink among the anti-India nuclear hardliners in Washington.
Addressing the media in New Delhi, Putin sought to underline how Russia had formulated these agreements to the full satisfaction of New Delhi and said, "Russia, unlike other countries, doesn't have any military cooperation with Pakistan out of concern for our Indian friends."
Moscow has been equally careful in maintaining the fine balance between New Delhi and Beijing, which remain the two largest recipients of Russian military technologies.
According to recently released data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute for the 2005-09 period, while India imported 77 percent of its defence equipment from Russia, China imported 89 percent of it from Russia.
China also cooperates with Russia in space technology. But India and Russia share a far longer history of defense cooperation.
Over this half a century of partnership starting from the late 1950s, while Russia has emerged as India's largest supplier of defence equipment, India has been Russia's single largest buyer of weapons.
The relationship has involved over 200 projects involving procurements, licensed assembly and joint production in India, to partnerships in building T90 main battle tanks and cruise missiles.
