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India fails to sign deal for more reactors for Koodankulam
| Inter-government agreement is in the pipeline, says Manmohan |
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh introduces Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Anil Kakodkar to Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in Moscow on Monday.
MOSCOW: New Delhi decided not to sign the nuclear deal for construction of four additional Russian reactors at the Koodankulam nuclear power station on Monday though Moscow was ready to ink it, an informed source said.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Russian President Vladimir Putin gave no reason, at their joint interaction with the media after their summit here, but Dr. Singh said the accord was in the pipeline.
“The inter-government agreement for the construction of four more reactors is work in progress.” Dr. Singh said. The accord was drawn up in pursuance of a memorandum of intent signed in January during Mr. Putin’s visit to India.
“It was ready for signature”However, the Russian source said the agreement had been fully prepared for signature during the summit.
“The Indian side, at the last moment, decided not to sign it, even as we were ready to go ahead with it,” the source told The Hindu. “This came as a big surprise to us.”
A lot of time and effort went into the drafting of the accord, the source said.
“The talks had been hard, but we thrashed out all details and took care of legal traps,” the source said.
The source said it was not possible to grandfather the four-reactor deal from the original 1988 agreement, which preceded international restrictions on nuclear technology supplies to India and under which Russia is now setting up two reactors in Koodankulam. He said the new agreement was crafted in such a way as to avoid any hint of breaching the NSG (Nuclear Suppliers Group) restrictions and the reactors would be supplied after India won a waiver.
The source, however, denied that the failure to sign the nuclear deal was a sign of any friction between India and Russia. He suggested that New Delhi decided to defer this agreement because of its problems with the 123 pact with the United States.
Both the Indian and Russian leaders stressed, after their talks, the shared commitment to continue and expand nuclear energy cooperation.
“We look forward to expanding our cooperation with Russia in the civil uses of nuclear energy in the future,” Dr. Singh said and thanked Mr. Putin for “Russia’s steadfast support in supplementing our nuclear energy programme, and its assistance in lifting international restrictions on nuclear cooperation with India.” Mr. Putin said Russia was always a “reliable partner” of India in nuclear energy and that nuclear cooperation was high on the agenda of the summit.
The source denied that there was any problem between New Delhi and Moscow, but reiterated Russian concerns at India launching a strategic dialogue with the U.S., Japan and Australia even as the three were forging a military alliance.
“We signalled our concern to Delhi,” the source said. “The Indian side assured us that their interaction with the U.S., Japan and Australia in the quadripartite format would not go beyond discussions and they were not prepared to set up any defence arrangements.”
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