The Indian Ambassador in Moscow, Venkatesh Farma, announced that Russia and India are discussing building nuclear power plants in the Middle East and Africa, including Ethiopia, and “this is a new era of nuclear energy cooperation between the two countries”.
The Indian ambassador emphasized that there are good prospects for cooperation between Russia and India in the field of nuclear energy in third countries, and that work is already underway on such a scheme in Bangladesh – in the “Ruppur” nuclear power plant that’s is currently under construction, and now Russia is working very actively for building nuclear power plants in The Middle East and Africa, and this opens up a new way for India to cooperate with Russia.
According to the ambassador, Russia and India can start projects in Africa similar to the Ruppur nuclear power project.
“Russia already has agreements in this field with a number of African countries. Ethiopia is one of them, and there are many other countries in the Middle East, these will be Russian projects, but with the participation of India … negotiations are underway in the initial stage, but we hope that this will be a new thing.”
The Ruppur nuclear power plant, to be built based on a Russian model, is 160 km from the capital of Bangladesh, and the first power unit is scheduled to start in 2023, and the second in 2024.
