Centrum Stosunków Międzynarodowych - 22 September 2016: US may provide India with a loan up to $ 9 billion for the construction of nuclear power plants

India and the United States are negotiating on the allocation by the US Export-Import Bank (Export-Import Bank of the United States) credit line amount of 8-9 billion dollars for the construction of nuclear power plant in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, Reuters reported, citing its sources. Earlier, the Government of India in principle approved the four sites for NPP construction with foreign participation: Jaitapur in Maharashtra, where the NPP is planning to be built with the assistance of France, Chhaya Mithi Virdi in Gujarat and Kovvada in Andhra Pradesh, and at each site it is planned to build six reactors with capacity of 1000 megawatts with the assistance of the United States. The fourth area defined for the construction of nuclear power plants in cooperation with Russia, and the place for NPP will be agreed.

In June, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Barack Obama after negotiations in Washington said that "engineering works and preparation of the construction site will begin immediately, and both sides are working hard to finalize the contracts by June 2017".

It concerns the construction of nuclear power plant in the town of Kovvada in Andhra Pradesh by Westinghouse. According to Reuters, India and the US are currently negotiating on building financing, but these negotiations interfered by internal political situation in the US: Board of Directors of EximBank must have at least three of the five votes to make decisions but now there are only two directors on the boar, the assigning of the third is blocked in the Senate.

Parties try to agree on the financial terms of the assistance in the hope that the Ex-Im Bank will soon start to operate normally. According to the agency, it is unlikely that India and the US will be able to sign the final contract for the construction of nuclear power plants before the completion of the Obama presidency, but the parties hope to agree on a compromise conditions for the loan.

In addition, India expects to receive co-financing from South Korea and Japan. US Eximbank has already requested a credit agency in Korea, whether it is interested in the partial financing of the construction of nuclear power plants, since it is expected that some of the equipment and materials will be supplied from this country. Similar request was not sent to Japanese colleagues. The possibility of financial assistance of Japan is explained by the fact that the Westinghouse Electric Company is owned by a Japanese corporation Toshiba.