dChan - Q Origins Project Archive

Russian nuclear energy giant Rosatom has reportedly offered technology transfer to India for small modular reactors (SMR), as the South Asian nation seeks to boost nuclear energy generation. Rosatom could explore the possibility of setting up SMRs in coastal areas of India, the Economic Times reported on Monday, citing sources.

Rosatom, which is currently developing India’s largest nuclear energy facility – the Kudankulam nuclear power plant in the southern state of Tamil Nadu – offered New Delhi cooperation on SMR technology last year, the report noted. Several documents signed between the two nations in 2024 also indicated the intention to cooperate in SMR technology, including the joint statement issued during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Moscow in July, which emphasized deepening cooperation in the nuclear energy field.

During his visit, Modi, accompanied by Russian President Vladimir Putin, was given a tour of the Atom Pavilion in Moscow. The two leaders were briefed on a range of different nuclear energy technologies and projects, including nuclear-powered icebreakers and floating nuclear power plants, which, according to TASS, Putin said could eventually “replace the oil produced around the world.” Rosatom Director General Aleksey Likhachev was reported as having told Modi that Russia could offer small nuclear reactors to India with “very deep localization” and could transfer the “whole construction part.”

Rosatom is the only foreign company involved in the construction of a nuclear power facility in India, the outlet noted. The report, however, added that the SMR segment in particular has attracted players from the US and France which have been offering India collaboration.

BRICS state gives Taiwan deadline to move ‘unofficial embassy’

Taipei claims that South Africa’s demand is due to increasing pressure from China

Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said the South African government has given Taipei until the end of March to relocate its unofficial embassy from the country’s capital, Pretoria.

In a statement announcing the move on Sunday, the ministry cited Chinese pressure as the reason for South Africa’s decision.

South Africa severed political and diplomatic ties with Taiwan in 1997 over Beijing’s claims that the self-governing island is part of Chinese territory. Regardless, Taiwan and South Africa have maintained what the two governments call liaison offices in each other’s capitals.

Currently, Taiwan has 12 formal diplomatic partners, with South Africa’s neighbor, Eswatini, being the only African country that is an ally of Taipei.

Pretoria previously made a request last year for the Taipei Liaison Office (TLO) to be moved to Johannesburg, South Africa’s economic hub, and renamed the ‘Trade Office’. The rebranding will be “a true reflection of the non-political and non-diplomatic nature of the relationship between the Republic of South Africa and Taiwan,” the African state explained in October, giving the island province a deadline of the end of that month.