Ahead of Russian President Valdimir Putin’s visit next month, Moscow declared that it would not sell arms to Pakistan. “We are always cooperating with India to ensure safety of the region. We never created trouble for India in the region as compared to other countries. If someone says otherwise, spit in his face,” Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin replied on being asked whether Russia was planning to sell arms to Pakistan.
“We don’t do military business with your enemies. We don’t transfer any arms to them,” he told journalists after arriving here on Sunday to co-chair the India-Russia Inter-governmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technological and Cultural Cooperation (IRIGC-TEC) with External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna in the run-up to Mr. Putin’s first visit to south Asia in his third term as Russian President.
Mr. Rogozin was clearing the air on several high-level engagements with Pakistan in recent times, which has led to talk about a reset in Russia-Pakistan ties. While Mr. Putin cancelled his Islamabad visit last month, his Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov held consultations with the Pakistani leadership. Around the same time, Pakistan Army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani visited Moscow.
Russian Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov, who was here a few days ago to hold talks with his Indian counterpart, A.K. Antony, on putting defence trade into a higher trajectory, besides sealing some pending deals, also became part of the story when he cancelled his visit when Gen. Kayani was in Moscow. Indian officials hotly denied that Mr. Serdyukov had postponed his India visit to be at hand to meet Mr. Kayani in Moscow but they gave no reasons for the Russian Defence Minister putting back his engagements in India by a week.
Mr. Rogozin, in-charge of Russia’s recently announced defence research organisation, will be taking up issues unresolved since his July visit — chiefly nuclear liability and investment by telecom company Sistema — besides touching on future areas of cooperation in the defence sector that were discussed by Mr. Serdyukov.
Kudankulam
Mr. Rogozin indicated that tough negotiations lay ahead on the next two reactors at Kudankulam. Russia does not want the civil nuclear liability law to apply to the proposed units 3 and 4. India has not applied the law to units 1 and 2 (being challenged in the Supreme Court) because they were constructed under an agreement that predated the 2010 civil liability law. But it is against exempting units 3 and 4 because this will be seen as discriminating against companies from the U.S. and France.
While warning that the reactors would become more expensive if they were brought under the liability law, Mr. Rogozin also addressed safety issues about units 1 and 2. Post-Fukushima, protests delayed their operationalisation and even Sri Lanka was concerned enough to begin talks with India on a civil nuclear agreement whose important components will be nuclear safety and response to nuclear accidents.
On this, Mr. Rogozin said Russia had imbibed the lessons of the Chernobyl accident and had since then worked to make the safety aspect on a par with world standards. “As for the nuclear project under construction in India, it will be the most reliable in the world,” he said. At the same time, he was not dismissive of the safety fears expressed by locals around the Kudankulam plant but felt “our emotions should not stop the project and stop progress in cooperation.”
Joint projects
The two sides will also be discussing some joint projects, none of which has taken off. These include Indian interest in Russian gas fields and Moscow’s bid to enter the steel segment. But officials have noted the signing of the mega gas deal contract between Gas Authority of India Limited and Gazprom despite attempts to derail the deal, which led to a three-year delay in supplies to begin.
Keywords: KNPP, Kudankulam nuclear plant, anti-nuclear protests, India-Russia relations, arms sale, Pakistan, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin
Russia has weakened its own negotiationg position with india by putting all its eggs in the indian basket. The argumentative India is a skilled negotiator.
If the product manufacturer is much confident on his product quality , he will give more years of warranty and will compete with other manufacturers.Normally one will buy a product based on manufacturer's guarantee and warranty terms.Only for the products with inferior quality or purchased without bill , there will not be any guarantee and warranty.
In this context, I can't understand Russia's demand of higher price for nuclear power plant equipements if it has to bear the liability in case of possible nuclear accidents.Are they going to add quality to the equipments if it has to bear liability ? If yes , does it the current equipments are low quality?
Its something like a burma bazzar vendor selling an electronic product without warranty & bill but at lower price compared to the billed purchase from authorised dealer. What India is going to do?
Presently, on the Kudankulam project, Russia carries NO liability.
Hence there is no question of "additional" liability on the next
phases. Also, if they are able to assure that they have learnt from
the Chernobyl disaster and that the current plant is "perfectly safe
and state-of-the-art",why are they shying from undertaking liability?
To add to this perfidy, the GOI is NOT making public the Kudankulam
project agreement details. There should a judicial inquiry into all
Russia-related defence contracts over the past five decades -- the
500+ MiG crashes so far is a sufficient reason for such an inquiry.
I fully agree with Russia's stand on this issue.After all, they have been very accomodative in regard to Admiral Gorshkov which is futher delayed and literally built India's first nuclear submarine( by boosting the price we paid for the refurbishment of a junk Admiral Gorshkov;and sending 200 Russian Scientists , Engineers and Technicians ).They should not be held liable.After all,what are the Americans for, if not for precisely these kind of situations!---to put the blame on!.How you link up both is entirely up to the media ---particularly non-corporate family-owned media.!If we need to pay the extra price let us do so, by increasing the price we will have to pay for the procurement of 42 Su-30 MKI combat aircraft and 71 medium-lift helicopters from Russia
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