Russia and India are on the way to becoming long-term nuclear trading partners and orders for civilian reactors would keep Moscow's nuclear industries running for the next 10-15 years.
Promising civilian nuclear cooperations would now become the main stay of Indo-Russian relations, the Russian media has proclaimed, in significant comments on the just concluded summit between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Dmitry Medvedev.
India signed a path-breaking civil nuclear agreement with Russia yesterday that will guarantee uninterrupted uranium fuel supplies for its atomic reactors and transfer of technology and also inked three military pacts.
The new nuclear agreement and the pact to continue defence cooperations between the two countries for another 10 years, the media said, indicated that the Soviet-era close relationship between the countries had not weakened under the unipolar world.
Russia could build up to 20 civil nuclear reactors in India under a path-breaking atomic agreement signed between the two countries, the chief of RosAtom State Corporation said.
"Russia could build up 20 reactors for nuclear power plants worth dozens of billion dollars," Sergei Kiriyenko, chief of RosAtom, told reporters here.
Noting that Russia would be the first country to capitalise on the end of the ban on nuclear trading with India, 'Moscow Times' said: "The Kremlin won a coveted agreement with India to boost cooperation in the civilian use of nuclear technology".
The local media welcomed that the vexed issue of Gorshkov aircraft carrier is out and the promising civilian nuclear cooperation is becoming a mainstay of Indo-Russian relations.
Critical of the long delay in the delivery of the aircraft carrier Gorshkov, the Times said it was timely that the two countries had come over what it called this irritant in otherwise close defence collaboration and ties.
The government daily 'Rossiskaya Gazeta' said "the two leaders have dotted the 'i' on Gorshkov issue".
Another influential daily "Nezavisimaya Gazeta' in its article 'Russian-Indian breakthrough' also notes that the finalisation of parameters of 'Admiral Gorshkov', the irritant in bilateral relations for some time, was the main outcome of the Moscow summit.
The government daily 'Rossiskaya Gazeta' singles out the intergovernmental agreement on civilian nuclear cooperation as the "most important", although India and Russia signed no less important agreements on extending their defence cooperation programme and after-sales servicing and product support of the Russian origin military hardware.
In its article 'Aircraft Carrier Taken out of Talks', leading business daily 'Kommersant' also notes that the parameters of "Gorshkov' refit were finalised. It stressed that India had reacted with "pain" at the Russian demand for extra money for already signed contract.
Another business daily published 'Vedomosti', published jointly by the Financial Times and Wall Street Journal, notes the importance of civilian nuclear deal, which would also keep the Russian nuclear industry running for at least another 10-15 years.
'Nezavisimaya Gazeta' quotes Medvedev, who at the start of the Kremlin parleys with Singh underscored: "In recent years our relations, which have very serious and old traditions of friendship did not weaken, on the contrary they have strengthened."
It points that in their Joint Declaration, Medvedev and Singh have underscored their shared perception on the radical changes underway in the world, which pose not only new challenges and threats, but also provide an opportunity for the creation of a new, democratic and fair polycentric world order.
The Moscow Times underlined that the nuclear deal was possible because the United States, eager to win lucrative contracts with India, successfully lobbied for the Nuclear Suppliers Group to lift a ban on importing nuclear technologies to India last year.
Leading expert on India Dr Andrei Volodin believes that India's choice of nuclear trade partners would be political.
"There are political factors that will play a role in India's decision in favour of one of the rivals for its nuclear power market," Dr Volodin said.
"The government of India would have to make a decision on whether India will develop as a self-reliant country or as part of a unipolar world with the US as its centre," he added.
Pro-Kremlin 'Vremya Novostyei' and popular youth tabloid 'Komsomolskaya Gazeta' mention the signing of $100 million credit line extended by India's EXIM Bank to Russia's development bank Vnesheconombank to finance the delivery of equipment and services from Indian companies seeking to invest in Russia.
The defence agreements signed between the two nations aimed at moving away from buyer-seller relationship provides for joint development of weapons systems and platforms over a 10-year period up to 2020 and vital after sales support for Russian equipment supplied to India to end ad hocism in this critical area.
The nuclear deal is seen as going much forward for the benefit of India than the historic 123 atomic agreement with the US, which does not guarantee fuel supplies without any break.
