A clearly unhappy Russia told India on Monday that it was unfair to “reconsider the rules of the game”, as both countries continue to have sharply divergent views on the imposition of the nuclear liability law regarding the two new units at the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP) in Tamil Nadu, as well as the investments of Russian telecom firm Sistema.
“We should never reconsider the rules of the game once the game has begun. And we should hold the rules till the game is over,” Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said at the joint interaction, after his talks with External Affairs Minister S M Krishna during the meeting of the Indo-Russian Inter-Governmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technological and Cultural Cooperation (IRIGC-TEC).
His answer was in response to a question on the Russian government’s stance on Sistema investments of about $3.1 billion coming under a cloud due to the Supreme Court cancelling 2G licences. But, it also could be read in the broader environment of Moscow being miffed with Delhi over the continued differences on completing the agreement for building units 3 and 4 of KKNPP.
Earlier, Rogozin said they would continue to have close cooperation with India on nuclear energy. “The first unit is ready to be launched and we expect the second unit will be launched before the end of next year,” he said. Rogozin further asserted that safety concerns raised by some quarters were not appropriate, as the Russian reactors were the “safest in the world”.
“The Russian experience in nuclear energy is very rich, including the negative experience that USSR had. We’ve learnt our lessons from that. So the new nuclear power plant at Koodankulam is the safest in the world. The requirement for safety and security are the highest there,” said Rogozin.