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Tripartite Deal on Bangladeshi Nuclear Power Project
24 March 2017
EIRNS—The Economic Times daily of India reports that India and Bangladesh are expected to sign a civilian nuclear deal during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s visit to India from April 7-10. This will lead to trilateral cooperation with Russia, which is building a nuclear power plant in Rooppur in Bangladesh. The proposed deal, which will be India’s second such pact in the neighborhood after the one with Sri Lanka, marks the first time India is joining hands with any nuclear power for cooperation with a third country. Bangladesh wants to gain experience from the Russian nuclear power plant in Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu, India, officials said. "Training in complicated technology is very essential. Training of specialists from Bangladesh at Kudankulam NPP in India will be economically beneficial and language-wise acceptable," an anonymous Bangladesh government official told Economic Times from Dhaka. In 2014, India and Russia had signed the "Strategic Vision for Strengthening Cooperation in Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy," which envisaged that the two sides would also explore opportunities for sourcing materials, equipment and services from Indian industry for construction of Russian-designed nuclear power plants in third countries. Russia and Bangladesh had in 2010 signed a pact for peaceful use of atomic energy. The construction of Rooppur NPP, 160 km from Dhaka, on the eastern bank of Ganga River, is being done in accordance with the intergovernmental agreement on cooperation in construction of a nuclear power plant in Bangladesh, Alexey Pimenov, CEO of Rosatom South Asia told Economic Times. Hasina and the general director of Rosatom Sergey Kirienko laid the foundation stone of the Rooppur NPP in 2013. (rap) |