Russia Wins Over India

You’d never say that the Kremlin doesn’t know how to win friends and influence people, as this latest nuclear gesture toward Delhi indicates:

Russia’s willingness to sign a nuclear agreement with India, without waiting for international restrictions on technology transfer to New Delhi to be lifted, is welcome. When President Vladimir Putin visited India in January 2007, the two countries had signed a Memorandum of Intent for the construction of four nuclear power reactors in Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu. Now Moscow seems keen to formalise that agreement and also build half a dozen more reactors elsewhere in India. The offer includes the supply of offshore nuclear plants to India without restrictions, as well. Since the proposal doesn’t seem to carry any riders like the Hyde Act clause that hamstrings the Indo-US deal, New Delhi shouldn’t find it too difficult to decide on it soon.

Russia’s relationship with India, one of the fellow BRIC economies, is getting warmer and warmer, despite some hiccups as observed by some.