Ahead of Russian Prime Minister Victor A Zubkov’s visit on Monday, top Russian officials on Thursday said both the countries had finalised the text of a civilian nuclear agreement on the lines of a similar arrangement with France.

The officials said all negotiations had been concluded and the text had been ‘frozen’ but the deal would be inked only after India signed the safeguard agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and obtained necessary clearances from the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).

However, the Russian officials said the matter was likely to come up for discussion during talks between Zubkov and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The two countries are expected to sign five agreements during Zubkov’s three-day visit, including three major ones in the aviation and telecom sectors.

The Russian Prime Minister’s visit is aimed at improving economic relations between the countries. Officials said the two sides were likely to discuss a probable collaboration on Uranium mining and enrichment in Jharkhand and a titanium mining project in Orissa. Talks on a possible 5 billion dollars investment by Russia in the Indian telecom sector are also likely to come up.

Two tricky issues between the governments that have been souring relations in the recent past are also expected to figure during the discussions. On the issue of massive cost escalations and delay in the Gorshkov aircraft carrier deal, the Russian officials said the original price contract signed in 2004 for 1.5 billion dollars was unrealistic and needed revision. Moscow has demanded an extra 1.2 billion dollars from India to complete work on the warship.

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