During the visit of President Vladimir Putin to Hanoi, Russia offered Vietnam to help him in the development of nuclear power plants, said Alexei Likhachev, head of the Russian state nuclear company "Rosatom", in a comment published today by the RIA Novosti agency, Reuters reported, quoted by BTA.
Likhachev, who was part of Putin's entourage during his visit to Vietnam last week, said he made the proposal to Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh.
"We proposed all possible options for cooperation... in my conversation with the Prime Minister of Vietnam," Likhachev said.
"Rosatom" offers foreign partners not only nuclear power plants with large, but also with small power, both on land and in floating versions," he added.
Vietnam has no nuclear power plants and abandoned plans to build its first two nuclear power plants in 2016 after the accident at Japan's "Fukushima" and due to budget constraints.
Before Vietnam canceled its plans to build plants, "Rosatom" had offered Hanoi a project based on high-power units and modern Russian reactors, Likhachev said.
During the visit, which saw Putin receive a 21-gun salute in a military ceremony, Russia and Vietnam signed agreements in a variety of fields, including energy, underscoring Moscow's shift in orientation toward Asia after the West imposed sanctions on Russia because of the conflict in Ukraine.