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Russia's president will offer India nuclear power plants in a major pitch for a slice of the nation's lucrative atomic energy market when he begins a visit to New Delhi, officials said.
President Vladimir Putin, seeking to counter growing US ties with India, Moscow's former Cold War ally, is bringing a large contingent of ministers, business people and officials on his two-day trip.
The visit's aim is to boost the “strategic relationship” and bring new momentum to a long friendship, said Putin, who will be guest of honour at India's annual Republic Day parade on Friday marking the country's founding as a republic.
“We intend to help India directly in construction of atomic energy facilities for peaceful use,” Putin said in an interview with the Press Trust of India (PTI).
The passage last year of a landmark US-Indian deal allowing New Delhi access to civilian nuclear technology after decades of isolation has unleashed an international race to supply energy-hungry India's atomic energy market.
Moscow, which still supplies over 70 percent of India's military hardware, also hopes to sign a slew of defence deals, including on joint production of a fifth-generation supersonic fighter jet and a multi-role transport aircraft.
“Many very serious and very substantial” agreements will be signed during Putin's trip, said Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov, kicking off his own five-day visit to India in the southern high-tech city of Bangalore.
Russia says it has sold arms worth 10 billion dollars to India in the past five years and that deals worth a similar amount are in the pipeline with the country which is modernising its outdated defence equipment.
India's military, the world's fourth-largest with around 1.3 million people in uniform, is in the market for new fighters and trainer jets, submarines, radar equipment and weaponry.
Ivanov added Russia plans to would “actively” participate in an Indian Air Force tender for 126 multi-purpose fighters, a contract valued at close to 10 billion dollars, which pits Lockheeds F-16 warplane and Boeings F/A-18E/F Super Hornet up against fighters from Russia, France and Sweden.
“India is pursuing a hedging strategy in its relations with Russia. They are trying not to over-rely on the US either politically, militarily or otherwise as the Russians have always proven to be fairly reliable in the past,” Bharat Karnad, analyst at New Delhi's Centre for Policy Research, told AFP.
Putin's visit “will strengthen and take bilateral relations between the two time-tested friends to new heights,” said India's Minister of State for Planning, M.V. Rajasekharan.
Russia will sign a preliminary deal with India to build four nuclear power plants as well as propose to supply four nuclear reactors, reports said.
“An agreement… is being prepared for signing on the construction at the Kudankulam nuclear power station (in Tamil Nadu) of additional reactors and also construction of atomic stations at new sites in India,” Ivanov also said in Moscow, according to the Interfax news agency.
The reactors would be for the flagship nuclear plant Russia is building in southern Tamil Nadu state due to start operation this year and which already has two Russian 1,000-megawatt reactors.
Nuclear power now just supplies a scant percentage of the energy needs of India which has been eagerly seeking new fuel supplies to feed its fast-growing economy.
India and energy-rich Russia are also expected to discuss boosting cooperation in oil exploration and production.
