Russia agreed on terms of deliveries of nuclear fuel to Bangladesh

This October, Russia will deliver and load the first nuclear fuel into the Rooppur NPP, which is being built with the participation of Rosatom. This was stated by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov following negotiations with the Bangladeshi authorities. The start of operation of the plant is scheduled for the end of 2024. Bangladesh will become the second country in Asia where the Russian nuclear power plant project will be implemented.

Lavrov arrived in Bangladesh the day before on his first visit from Jakarta, Indonesia, where the 18th East Asia Summit was being held.

“Rosatom» began construction of the Rooppur NPP in 2018 after concluding a general contract with the authorities of the republic. The cost of the project is estimated at $13 billion. The station will include two reactors with a total capacity of 2,400 MW. According to the Chinese trade publication Polaris Electric News Network, the first unit is scheduled to be commissioned in February 2024, and the second by the end of 2024. In April, Reuters, citing sources in the Bangladeshi government, reported that Moscow initially planned to pay for the nuclear plant receive payments in rubles, but the parties subsequently agreed to use Chinese yuan.

This is not the first Rosatom project in South Asia. In April 2014, the state corporation, as part of an agreement with the Indian government, put into commercial operation the first power unit of the Kudankulam nuclear power plant in the south of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Two years later, the second power unit was connected. On September 30, 2022, according to the IAEA, the third power unit was brought into operation at the minimum controlled power level. In total, by 2025, Rosatom plans to launch three more power units. In addition, with the participation of Russian specialists, the Xudapu nuclear power plant in China is being built in 2021.

Today Bangladesh is Russia’s second trading partner in South Asia after India. At the end of 2021, trade turnover amounted to almost $3 billion, but in 2022, under the influence of unfavorable international conditions, this figure decreased by 21.4% and amounted to $2.3 billion. Russia supplies this country mainly with industrial equipment, metals, mineral fertilizers and wheat.

According to Lavrov, during the negotiations, the relevant departments also discussed the issue of regular “large-scale” supplies of Russian liquefied natural gas and oil.

Bangladesh supplies Russia mainly with clothing and seafood.

The Foreign Minister noted that Western sanctions and the disconnection of Russian banks from the SWIFT payment system are not an obstacle to building up bilateral trade and economic relations. “We are rapidly moving towards a variety of payment systems based on national currencies, and not on the monetary units of those countries that use them as weapons,” the minister added.

The visit of the Russian minister to Bangladesh is another step in the context of Russia’s foreign economic reorientation to the East, said Alexey Kupriyanov, head of the South Asia and Indian Ocean region group at IMEMO. According to the expert, since the 1990s, the South Asian direction in Russian foreign policy has not been sufficiently developed, and bilateral economic ties have not lived up to their potential. “After the completion of the nuclear power plant, Russia will have no other economic projects in Bangladesh. This is a huge market with a fast-growing economy, so Moscow is trying to expand the range of Russian exports to the country and strengthen its presence in the region,” Kupriyanov noted.

US policy in the region and its impact on Russian-Bengal relations on the eve of future elections in Bangladesh is another important topic of discussion between the authorities of both countries, says Maria Savishcheva, an employee of the Center for the Indian Ocean Region of the IMEMO RAS. According to her, the current ruling Awami League has a warm attitude towards Moscow and is interested in strengthening bilateral relations: in the 1970s. The USSR provided assistance to the father of the current prime minister and the founder of the party, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, during the struggle for the country’s independence from Pakistan. In contrast, the opposition Nationalist Party views Washington favorably. “It was during the leadership of the Awami League that Moscow and Dhaka entered into an agreement on the construction of a nuclear power plant,” the expert recalls.