Dec. 9 – Russia and India have signed an agreement to expand nuclear cooperation. They also signed three military pacts during Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Moscow, which followed his successful U.S. state visit.

The civilian nuclear cooperation agreement will give India the right to reprocess spent fuel, taking the pact “far beyond the 123 Agreement” signed with the United States, official sources said. The U.S. pact provides for not just termination of ongoing cooperation but also for the return to the United States of already supplied components and fuel in the event of the nuclear agreement being terminated.

The prime minister, who ends a three-day visit to Moscow today was quoted in The Hindu Business Line as saying that India and Russia’s views on global issues are similar and that the two countries could extend cooperation at the international level. “We will be sharing intelligence and information gathering,” he said. “We have decided to set a trade target of US$20 billion by 2015. We have identified the areas of energy, information technology and communications, and pharmaceuticals as the new thrust areas for cooperation.”