‘Laid out ambitious plan for our collaboration in key domains’: Vladimir Putin on his India visit

NEW DELHI: Russian president Vladimir Putin on Thursday said that his country’s partnership with India spans various fields, including technology and energy, and that the two nations will cooperate in many other “interesting areas”.

He said that India-Russia’s partnership in nuclear power is exemplified by the prominent Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP) project set up in Tamil Nadu.

In and interview with Aaj Tak and India Today, Putin said that India and Russia will work together on issues deemed important by both him and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with likely discussions on future cooperation in areas such as Artificial Intelligence (AI).

“We have laid out an ambitious plan for our collaboration in key domains. The most critical areas are indeed forward-looking. I’m referring specifically to high technology. Our partnership with India encompasses such fields as space exploration, energy (notably nuclear power, exemplified by the prominent Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant project), shipbuilding, and aviation,” the Russian president said.

“There are many interesting areas for cooperation that look to the future. Take, for example, artificial intelligence. We’ll likely discuss it further down the line. AI represents a crucial technology shaping the future, rapidly transforming the world, amplifying possibilities exponentially while simultaneously presenting certain challenges,” he added.

Putin revealed that announcements on nuclear cooperation between India and Russia were imminent. He said that Russia remains a producer of advanced, reliable nuclear power plant equipment and is capable of building small nuclear power plants.

“We have some announcements to make. We are producers of the world’s most advanced and reliable equipment for nuclear power plants. The Russian company Rosatom builds and operates more nuclear reactors for nuclear power plants abroad than any other company in the world —22 nuclear units. The well-known facility and our joint project, the Kudankulam plant, is one of the leaders in this regard. These are large units; they operate efficiently and, I reiterate, have proven to be very useful,” the Russian president said.

Putin said that small nuclear power plants are already operational in Russia and are an option for regions that don’t require large power stations.

“Russia is probably the only country in the world today capable of building —and actually does build — small nuclear power plants. Such plants are already operational in Russia, and we can make them either floating or ground-based. It’s an excellent option for specific regions where big power stations are not needed or where connecting electricity grids between generators and end-users isn’t feasible. These compact nuclear power modules can thus be deployed in isolated and hard-to-access locations,” he said. (ANI)