Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh undertook an extensive review of bilateral cooperation, especially in the field of nuclear energy and discussed ways to expedite an agreement for nuclear reactor 3 and 4 at Kudankulam.
The venue of the meeting between the two leaders was shifted at the last minute from Hyderabad House to 7, Race Course Road, the official residence of the Prime Minister in view of the large-scale protests after the gangrape incident.
All key bilateral issues, including defence, space, trade and investment, science and technology, education, culture and tourism were discussed in the meeting which also witnessed Russians raising their concerns over the issue of Sistema.
However, official sources only said "the issue (Sistema) was discussed" and did not divulge any more details.
Sistema, with investment of USD 3.1 billion, has 56.68 per cent stake in Shyam Sistema Teleservices (SSTL) whose 21 out of 22 licences were cancelled by the Supreme Court on February 2 as irregularities were found in their allocation.
Russian Government, which has a stake of 17.14 per cent in the company, has since been expressing concern and pressing India to ensure protection of Sistema's investment.
After his talks with Putin during the Russian leader's brief visit of nearly 18 hours for the bilateral summit, Singh said, "We also discussed regional and global issues, on many of which there is a marked congruence in our approach.
"The development of our nuclear energy programme has been a key pillar of our strategic partnership," the Prime Minister said while noting that construction of Unit 1 of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project was "now complete, and power generation will commence shortly". He also said India looks forward to the completion of Unit 2 next year.
"Negotiations for the construction of Units 3 and 4 at Kudankulam have made good progress," Singh said.
According to the sources, the two countries expect to finalise the negotiations for 3 and 4 soon.
"We expect that the implementation of our arrangements on the construction of new NPPs in India will begin in the nearest future," Putin had said ahead of his visit. MORE
