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India to seek Russian support for its nuke programme
N Bhadran Nair

     Moscow: India will seek Russian support for amending the nuclear supplier group (NSG) guidelines. External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh, who arrived in Moscow to attend the two day Indo-Russian Inter-governmental Commission on trade, economic, cultural, scientific and technological cooperation told ANI that the issue would prominently figure during his talks with Russian leaders. Natwar Singh, who will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin and other leaders, is expected to brief them on the outcome of the recent talks with US Under Secretary of State for political affairs Nicholas Burns on the nuclear cooperation and seek Moscow's backing to amend the guidelines of the NSG. In a statement on his arrival, Natwar Singh said "economic cooperation (with Russia) is growing and we have multiple programmes and project in a number of areas of science and technology." While officials commented "with Russia, we never talked of an agreement on nuclear cooperation, but it gave what we wanted, while anything like that is not in the horizon, though we are close to signing an agreement."

     Another important issue on the table is a comprehensive economic cooperation with Russia, which will be discussed by a joint task force. Representatives of the ministries of finance, commerce, industry, oil and natural gas and some public sector undertakings are taking part in the task force meeting. The first meeting of the task force, officials said, is expected mark the beginning of knocking down all trade barriers between the two countries, though officials admitted that it is "easier, said than done." Both the sides would also discuss further relaxing the visa regime, as the current regime allows only diplomats and officials, while New Delhi is pressing for relaxation of the visa rules to business delegations and is looking forward to a business visa facilitation agreement with Moscow. Officials however, said the "ball is in Moscow's court." Russia on the other hand has been pressing to dissolve the India's rupee-rubble debt, which currently stands at US $ 2.5 billion. While Russia wants India to repay the debt in one go, India is trying get it agrees for re-investing the amount back in India.