Russia, India could reach $10 bn annual trade in 2010: Kremlin

MOSCOW - Russia and India could reach an annual trade of $10 billion in 2010, the Kremlin has said.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is in Russia on a three-day official visit on an invitation from Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. They held informal talks Sunday and are to hold full-scale talks in the Kremlin Monday.

“Despite the negative consequences of the global crisis, bilateral trade has continued to grow. The goal to reach the $10 billion mark by the end of 2010 is quite achievable,” the Kremlin said Sunday.

Singh said on the eve of his visit to Russia that the energy sector possessed considerable potential for growth and was of particular interest for India.

India’s state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) is currently taking part in Sakhalin-I, an oil and gas project off the coast of Russia’s Pacific island of the same name. It is also the owner, via subsidiary ONGC Videsh Ltd. (OVL), of British oil company Imperial Energy, with production licences for fields in west Siberia’s Tomsk region.

Atomstroyexport, Russia’s nuclear power equipment and service export monopoly, has been building two reactors for the Kudankulam nuclear power plant in India’s southern state of Tamil Nadu since 2002 in line with a 1988 deal between India and the Soviet Union and an addendum signed 10 years later. Electricity production is scheduled to start in the first half of 2010.

The two countries are also expected to sign an intergovernmental agreement on a programme for military and technological cooperation for 2011-20.

–RIA Novosti