Indian And Russian Leaders Praise Partnership

Russian President, Vladimir Putin and the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, have strengthened relations between their countries by signing defence, energy and other deals.

President Putin announced that Russia would build a series of nuclear plants in India over the next two decades.

He said work on the first two reactors are now in preparation.

About $7 billion worth of deals have been signed during Mr Modi’s Russia trip, many of them defence related.

However, there has been no progress on an expected purchase by India of Russian s-400 missiles, Moscow’s most sophisticated aircraft defence system.

“I see in Russia a prominent partner in India’s economic transformation,” Mr Modi said after he and Mr Putin agreed to reduce visa requirements between the two countries.

Mr Modi was eager for Russia to participate in various infrastructure projects as his government strives to revamp India’s railway network and build nuclear energy plants to meet growing electricity needs.

They agreed on the location of a new Russian nuclear energy plant in the southern Indian State of Andhra Pradesh.

Russia is already constructing a nuclear plant in the nearby state of Tamil Nadu. Mr Modi said Russia had agreed to build a total of 12 over an unspecified timeframe.