India, which is racing to secure new sources of fuel to sustain its booming economy, welcomed Russian moves to help "in the expansion of our nuclear sector," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said after a signing ceremony.

"We appreciate Russian support," Singh said after the two countries inked a memorandum of understanding in which Russia promised four more nuclear reactors for a flagship nuclear plant it is building in Kudankulam in southern Tamil Nadu -- a state that already has two 1,000-megawatt Russian reactors.

The symbolic highlight of Putin's two-day visit will be Friday, when he is guest of honour at India's Republic Day celebrations -- designed to show a close friendship even as New Delhi grows closer to the United States and other Western governments.

Putin, on his fourth visit to India since becoming president, also promised to co-operate in building atomic energy stations "at new locations in the Indian republic."

The passage last year of a landmark US-Indian deal allowing New Delhi access to civilian nuclear technology after decades of isolation has unleashed an international race to supply the Indian civilian nuclear energy market.

Western nations have also been jostling for a slice of India's lucrative civilian nuclear energy market, although any contracts with india still must await approval by the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group, which regulates the global nuclear energy trade.

Outside of nuclear and military cooperation -- which brought a 250-million-dollar contract Wednesday for the joint production of fighter jet engines -- India's business elite painted a less than rosy picture of relations with Russia.

"We have to seek an answer to the question why, despite strong political ties between two time-tested friends, bilateral trade and business ties remain low," Habil Khorakiwala, president of Indian business association FICCI, said.

Addressing Putin during a meeting with other Indian and Russian businessmen, Khorakiwala said it was "time to put words into practice and transform the willingness into actual cooperation."

Minutes after Putin said bilateral trade ties had jumped an estimated 20 percent in 2006 to reach 3.8 billion dollars, Khorakiwala put the number at just 2.75 billion.

Indian businessmen have long complained of difficulties in receiving Russian visas, which Russia has tied to alleged problems with illegal Indian immigration, an Indian government official told AFP.

Still, Thursday brought agreement between India's state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp and Russian state oil giant Rosneft to jointly bid for exploration and refining projects in India, Russia and other countries.

ONGC and Rosneft will build on their existing partnership in Russia's vast Sakhalin-1 oil and gas field, the two companies said in a joint statement.

The two sides also signed a 250-million-dollar deal for a Russian-built hydroelectric power station in northern Uttar Pradesh, as well as a joint venture to produce titanium products in eastern Orissa.

Moscow and New Delhi were allies throughout the Cold War, agreeing to billions of dollars' worth of arms deals, but the ground has shifted as India has turned to the US and other Western countries for arms and investment.

Putin has said he hoped the countries would triple bilateral trade to 10 billion dollars per year by 2010.

earlier related report
Russian Energy For Asia
by Vladimir Petrovsky - UPI Outside View Commentator
Moscow (UPI) Jan. 18 - Leaders of the 16 countries that attended Monday's East Asia Summit in Cebu, the Philippines, have signed an agreement to promote energy security and find alternatives to conventional fuels. The agreement was signed by the 10 member nations of ASEAN, as well as China, Japan, New Zealand, India, South Korea and Australia.

The Cebu Declaration on East Asian Energy Security lists a series of goals aimed at providing "reliable, adequate and affordable" energy supplies to a huge region from Australia to India. Notably, the signatories are attempting to lessen their dependence on oil from the Middle East.

Russia, which aims to become a major strategic supplier of oil and gas for both Europe and the Asia Pacific region, is a key player in this energy security game, especially for China and Japan. Both countries may become heavily dependent on Russia's energy supplies; the two are still competing for a Russian pipeline that will eventually deliver the bulk of oil extracted from deposits in Russia's Eastern Siberia either to the Chinese mainland or to Japanese sea ports.

However, Asian energy consumers, first of all in Japan, may be concerned over recent developments at the Sakhalin 2 oil and gas project. An attempt by Russia's state-owned Gazprom to take control of the foreign-invested project last month, citing Russian environmental regulations, is viewed as monopolistic and an attempt to use energy supplies as a political tool.

Similar situations that arose recently in Europe -- the Russo-Ukrainian conflict over the price of gas supplies, and the latest incident of the same type involving Russia and Belarus, -- prompted concerns in Europe as to whether Russia is a reliable energy supplier. The European Commission was urgently tasked to draft a new European Energy Security Concept, which may resemble the document adopted at the East Asian summit.

Coming back to the Cebu Declaration -- dependency on certain energy suppliers was not the only energy security threat considered. Greenhouse gas emissions from Asian nations are forecast to grow rapidly in the coming years, with one estimate saying they could treble by 2025. The declaration does not set any targets for capping greenhouse emissions, but calls for extra investment in eco-friendly fuels.

The summit was also marked by an improvement in relations between regional rivals China and Japan. Japan, China and South Korea held their first three-way meeting in two years, faced with the need to coordinate possible action against North Korea and urging Pyongyang to end its nuclear program and seek a stronger trading relationship with its neighbors.

Multilateral trade and economic arrangements may force the North Korean regime to become more open and transparent, and more involved in regional cooperative projects. Notably these may include plans to construct a regional electricity grid and a natural oil and gas pipeline through the Korean peninsula and across Northeast Asia.

In view of the Cebu Declaration, these promising and very probable developments may be seen as good opportunities for Russia to fulfill its role as a great energy power, rather than threats to Russian economic and geopolitical interests.

(Vladimir Petrovsky is president of the Russian National Peace Council. He is also coordinator for foreign policy studies of the Russian Political Science Association and a member of the academic board of Russia's Academy of Diplomatic Services.)

(United Press International's "Outside View" commentaries are written by outside contributors who specialize in a variety of important issues. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of United Press International. In the interests of creating an open forum, original submissions are invited.)

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