No nuke MoU for Kudankulam programme if Russia does back India at NSG

Signs of India's resistance was made known when it gave no assurance to Russia's deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin when the issue relating to the MoU was taken up.

India would stall cooperation with its foreign partners for development of civil nuclear programmes if it is unable to become a member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group. India has threatened to put on the back burner an MoU with Russia for developing 6 reactor units at Kudankulam.

India feels that Russia must work more pro-actively for its NSG bid. Signs of India's resistance was made known when it gave no assurance to Russia's deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin when the issue relating to the MoU was taken up.

Rogozin took up the issue with Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his meeting last week. However Modi offered no assurance on the issue, thus signalling India's disappointment about Russia not playing a pro-active role on the NSG bid.

India has signalled that without an NSG membership in the next two years, it would be forced to go for a indigenous nuclear energy programme.

Russia has made several attempts to get India to sign the MoU. The MoU which was meant to be signed on the sidelines of the BRICS summit at Goa last year has not yet seen the light of the day. Moscow on the other hand is concerned that there has been no assurance from India weeks ahead of the Putin-Modi meeting.

India at various levels has urged Russia to persuade China to support its NSG bid. China has been blocking India's bid at the NSG. India feels that Russia has not done enough to convince China to back India's NSG bid.

OneIndia News