Heads of state from Russia and Vietnam agreed to further cooperation on nuclear power plant projects in Vietnam, which has set its sights on having 13 reactors in commercial operation by 2030.
After meetings in Hanoi this week, Prime Ministers Nguyen Tan Dung of Vietnam and Dmitry Medvedev of Russia witnessed the signing of multiple trade agreements intending to increase international trade to $10 billion per year by 2020. The agreements included advancing trade in the energy, banking and transportation sectors, Vietnam.net reported.
The two leaders also advanced agreements on the envisioned 1,000 MW Ninh Thuan 1 nuclear power station, which is slated for the central coast province and would be the country's first nuclear power plant.
Russian nuclear power giant Rosatom has already revealed plans to find Vietnamese construction companies to participate in the project and the Vietnam Electricity Group (EVN) has already forwarded Rosatom's feasibility study on the project to the Vietnam Agency for Radiation and Nuclear Safety, which is reviewing the study. Dung, however, said last year that construction of the plant may have to wait until 2020.
The two leaders this week discussed the option of signing a free trade agreement in the second half of 2015 and urged their respective government agencies to implement changes that would halt and reverse a slide in trade between the two countries. In 2014, trade between Russia and Vietnam reached $2.55 billion, a 7.6 percent slide from 2013.