ANTALYA /Turkey/, November 12. /TASS/. Rosatom is open to building nuclear power plants in unfriendly countries, should such a request be made, but only after intergovernmental agreements are concluded, Chief Executive Officer of Russia’s state corporation Alexey Likhachev said in an interview with RT.

"This is a truly complicated issue. <…> My answer has two aspects. First, speaking as an individual and as a CEO, I would say: "Yes, let’s discuss this." For us, working in Europe is both a major challenge and a source of satisfaction. We have the capability and the desire to work with Europeans. And I will tell them this both as a Russian citizen and as someone who leads a very large organization," he said.

"However, I am also a civil servant, so I must convey the procedures for this work to our partners. The point is that cooperation in the nuclear sector is so sensitive and so important, and always bound up with our international obligations, that we can only make any real progress once intergovernmental arrangements are in place, leading to specific agreements," Likhachev explained when asked how he would react if Germany were to ask Russia to build nuclear power plants on its territory.

Even after signing a "very good, truly breakthrough" document with Indonesia on the construction of a nuclear power plant, an intergovernmental agreement is still established, he noted. "The same must apply to Germany. This issue cannot be isolated from the broader context of intergovernmental relations. In any case, we will need to establish an intergovernmental dialogue, perhaps even a dialogue between the leaders on this subject, should German businesses or the German government once again develop an appetite for nuclear energy. I can also quote Russian President Vladimir V. Putin who stated that we have no unfriendly countries and, even more so, no unfriendly peoples. We do have unfriendly leaders, whose time, thank God, is limited," Rosatom’s chief executive concluded.