Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will visit Hanoi this weekend to agree
the construction of Vietnam's first nuclear power plant, a deal aimed
at reviving ties with the Soviet-era ally, his aide said Friday.
Russian and Vietnamese officials will ink an intergovernmental
agreement to construct a nuclear power plant, part of an "extensive
raft of bilateral agreements," Medvedev's top foreign policy aide Sergei
Prikhodko said.
He also told reporters Moscow was willing to provide a loan to
help Hanoi finance the plant's construction.
"Such a large project as the construction of a nuclear power
station naturally prompts our friends to make use of our financial
resources," Prikhodko said at the Kremlin in comments released on
Friday. "We are ready to consider the issue of extending credit for the
construction of the nuclear power plant on mutually agreeable terms."
He didn't provide further details, but an official with the
state nuclear corporation Rosatom told AFP the negotiations centered
around a two-unit power plant whose construction is estimated at around
EUR4 billion.
"Together with the infrastructure it will be a bit more," the
official said on condition of anonymity ahead of the signing.
For construction to start, the countries would have to sign a
firm contract, the official said, adding it was too early to speak of
any timeframe. He said however that a group of Vietnamese experts and
students had already arrived in the town of Obninsk outside Moscow--home
to Russia's first Soviet-era nuclear plant and top nuclear research
centers--for training.
Analysts speak of an increasing demand for nuclear energy and
Russia is locked in a global race with competitors like the U.S., Japan
and France to clinch lucrative contracts worldwide.
In March, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin tasked his government
with boosting Russia's share on the global nuclear market to 25% from
the current 16%.
Vietnam has approved building the country's first nuclear
power stations and initial government plans call for four reactors, with
a total capacity of 4,000 megawatts, at least one of which should be
operational from 2020.
Earlier this month, Moscow and Caracas signed an agreement to
build and operate Venezuela's first nuclear power plant. In May, Moscow
inked a deal to build and opera te Turkey's
first nuclear power plant in a project estimated to cost up to $20
billion.