Russian Prime Minister arrives on two-day visit

New Delhi, Mar 16 (UNI) Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov arrived here today on a two-day oficial visit for discussions with Indian leaders on various aspects of bilateral relations including cooperation in trade and space and regional and international situation.

The visit is significant as Russia has agreed to supply nuclear fuel for the Tarapur Atomic Power Plant and has already notified the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).

The Russian Prime Minister, who is accompanied by a high-level business delegation and the Head of the Russian Federal Atomic Agency besides senior officials, will have a meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh tomorrow.

The meeting will be followed by delegation-level talks between the two countries.

Cooperation in space, science and technology, energy, trade and commerce will be the main focus of discussion.

A spokesman of the External Affairs Ministry said several inter-agency agreements are expected to be signed, covering issues such as space, banking, energy and cooperation between chambers of commerce of the two countries.

''This is a significant visit in view of our strategic partnership with the Russian Federation, the importance of high-level contacts between the two countries and the fact that Russia has assumed the presidency of G-8 this year,'' he said.

The bilateral cooperation is wide ranging and the areas expected to be covered during the visit would include energy, including civilian nuclear energy, power generation, defence, metallurgy, information technology and other knowledge based areas, infrastructure, exploration of outer space, and cooperation in high-technology areas, the spokesman added.

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