India, Russia sign agreement for future units of Kudankulam plant

MOSCOW: India and Russia on Tuesday signed “some very important” agreements related to the construction of the future power generating units of the Kudankulam nuclear power plant in Tamil Nadu, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said.

Jaishankar, who is on a five-day visit to Russia to hold meetings with Russia’s leadership, announced this during a community address here.

“Today, in my presence and that of Deputy Prime Minister (Denis) Manturov, we signed some very important agreements pertaining to the future units of the Kudankulam nuclear project,” he said. The Kudankulam nuclear power plant is being built in Tamil Nadu with the technical assistance of Russia. The construction began in March 2002. Since February 2016, the first power unit of the Kudankulam NPP has been steadily operating at its design capacity of 1,000 MW. The plant is expected to start operating at full capacity in 2027, according to Russian state media. Jaishankar described Russia as a “special partner” in a few areas such as defence, nuclear power and space.

“Collaborations are done in areas of defence, space and nuclear [energy] with countries with which you have a high degree of trust,” he added.

Jaishankar also said that the two sides have agreed that their negotiating teams will meet by the end of January to start in-person negotiations on the free trade agreement between India and the Eurasian Economic Zone. “Today, when I met the Prime Minister we agreed that early next year, our negotiating teams will meet. So I expect by the end of January, hopefully, that the in-person negotiations will start,” he said while responding to questions.

“If one looks at our economy, influence, and impact on the world today, it is very different from 10 years ago and will be different 10 years later. We went on from the 10th largest economy a decade ago, to be the 5th largest now and will hopefully be the 3rd largest and beyond that, later,” Jaishankar said.