Despite the massive sanctions imposed by the Trump White House to get India to break its relations with Moscow, India seems to be going in the opposite direction. On Sept. 1, the CEO of Rosatom Aleksey Likhachev told reporters on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization: “They [India], maybe like no other, are interested in developing the new fourth generation of nuclear energy with us. Our Indian friends pay special attention to the technology of tomorrow,” reported RT.
Likhachev also said that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had reiterated India’s interest in Russia’s Northern Sea Route in the Arctic. “A joint intergovernmental working group is already operational,” Likhachev said, adding: “There are target numbers for the coming years—to reach five million tons of transit with India via the Northern Sea Route. And I am sure our cooperation won’t be limited to that.”
There are also reports that India is planning to increase its oil purchases from Russia, despite—or maybe because of—the pressure from Washington. Reuters reported this on Aug. 28, quoting from three anonymous sources in the trading business: “Indian refiners would increase Russian oil purchases in September by 10-20% from August levels, or by 150,000-300,000 barrels per day.”
