Russia will build at least 12 nuclear reactors for power stations in India, the head of its state nuclear corporation said on Friday, as Prime Minister Vladimir Putin visited to India to reaffirm decades-old ties.
Russia is competing with French and American firms for lucrative contracts to build nuclear power plants for energy-hungry India as Asia's third-largest economy needs to boost its supply to help sustain rapid economic growth.
"So far it is clear that it will be 12 [reactors]. And this is not the final figure," Sergei Kiriyenko, head of the Russian Atomic Agency, told reporters, adding that six reactors would be built between 2012 and 2017.
Putin pledged on Friday to boost banking and technology cooperation with India, seeking to bolster ties with a Cold War ally that has been shifting focus towards the United States.
Russia wants to boost trade with India to $20 billion by 2015 from the current $8 billion. Together with China and Brazil, Russia and India make up the so-called BRIC group of major emerging economies, whose global influence is rising.
The two nations also seek a greater role in stabilizing the region because both share security interests emanating from Islamist militant violence and the war in Afghanistan.
"India is our strategic partner ... which is evidence that our geopolitical interests almost fully coincide," Putin told a conference with businessmen in the Indian capital New Delhi.
Setting the tone for his one-day visit mainly aimed at keeping one of the world's biggest arms importers interested in Russian weapons, Putin offered state financial aid for the Indian telecoms unit of Russian conglomerate Sistema.
Sistema, controlled by billionaire Vladimir Yevtushenkov, is looking to deepen its investment in Sistema Shyam TeleServices, a joint venture with India's Shyam group.
"We are ready to contribute funds for your joint activity," Putin said in response to a question by a Shyam group official.
Yevtushenkov later said the Russian government would become a shareholder in Shyam.
Putin also vowed to remove hurdles in the banking sector that he said were hampering mutual trade and signaled that the government was ready to encourage joint ventures and acquisitions in the sector.
India struck a landmark civilian nuclear deal with the United States in 2008, ending the isolation that it had experienced since an atomic test in 1974 and giving it access to U.S. technology and fuel, while also opening up the global nuclear market to India.
As India begins to lean more on the United States, Moscow fears losing not only influence over New Delhi but the bulk of its $100 billion defense market as well.
Putin's visit is likely to produce deals worth more than $10 billion mainly in defense contracts, nuclear reactors and trade.
Putin sought to assure Indian businessmen that Russian nuclear reactors were safe. Russia has almost completed equipment delivery for two reactors at Kudankulam nuclear power station and is in talks to build two more reactors.
"Our reactors can sustain a crash of a medium-range passenger plane," Putin said, seeking to demonstrate that Russian plants could withstand terrorist attacks similar to the ones in the United States on Sept. 11, 2001.
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