Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who met President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin palace for restricted and delegation-level talks that went beyond schedule by over 90 minutes, told a joint news interaction that the extraordinary history of bilateral relations gave him confidence that the growing convergence of interests and expanding opportunities would take the strategic partnership to "even greater heights".
This was Singh's fifth annual summit with Putin and the 14th summit between the two countries.
Against the backdrop of hurdles that have come in the way of finalising a deal for two new reactors in Kudankulam, the two leaders pledged to reach an agreement on setting up Units 3 and 4. Russia is opposing the application of liability clauses under a new Indian law.
A joint statement issued at the end of the talks said the two sides agreed to "expeditiously finalise" the General Framework Agreement and the techno-commercial offer for Units 3 and 4 of Kudankulam.
"I conveyed to President Putin our commitment to fully implement the road map on civil nuclear cooperation that was signed during Putin's visit to India in 2010,"he said. "We have directed our officials to resolve all outstanding issues at the earliest."
At the news interaction, Putin expressed happiness at the Russian-made Unit 1 of Kudankulam attaining criticality in July and said it would join the power grid "in the next few hours". Singh said Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant is an important symbol of the bilateral strategic partnership and they looked forward to commercial power production from Unit 1 shortly and the completion of work on Unit 2 next year.