Agreement on Kudankulam reactor units 'down to a word or two', says Indian ambassador to Russia

New Delhi: Even as the first unit of the Kudankulam nuclear reactor is hours away from being integrated with the Southern Power Grid, India today indicated that the agreement on the third and fourth units was in its absolute last stage and will be clinched shortly in Moscow.

Indian Ambassador to Russia Ajai Malhotra remarked that the agreement is down to "a word or two and the lawyers are ironing out".

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh himself referred to the negotiations, saying, "I conveyed to President Putin our commitment to fully implement the road map on civil nuclear cooperation that was signed during his visit to India in 2010. We have directed our officials to resolve all outstanding issues at the earliest."

Even Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed satisfaction about the progress of the talks on the agreement.

Earlier, official sources had claimed that the deal was likely not to be signed during this visit.

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They said all issues except one on the liability clause was yet to be resolved and lawyers on both sides were working on it. "We have cleaned up the text of the agreement and now lawyers on both sides are having a final look at the agreement," the sources added.

"In any case it (agreement) won't be signed during the visit because it is a commercial agreement between the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited and Rosatom. They would like to do it separately," they said.

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Russia is opposed to the project coming under the ambit of the Nuclear Civil Liability Law of India and wants it to be covered under the Inter-governmental agreement on the issue.

India has tried to assuage the Russian concerns by making proposals on the liability limiting it to suppliers default in cases of equipment failure in the event of an accident.