MOSCOW, September 30. /TASS/. Russia has lashed out at the Czech Republic’s decision to exclude China and Russia from building a new power unit at the Dukovany Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) as discriminatory, Deputy Director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Information and Press Department Alexey Zaitsev said on Thursday.

"On September 27, President Milos Zeman of the Czech Republic signed a law earlier approved by both houses of the Czech parliament on measures for the Czech Republic’s transition to low-emission energy. Provisions actually discriminating against potential participants from Russia and China in the project to expand the Czech Dukovany NPP were added into this law at the initiative of the right-wing liberal opposition," the spokesman said. "The law stipulates that only technologies of suppliers from countries who are members of the 1996 WTO Agreement on Government Procurement can be employed when building new power units in the Czech Republic, but Russia and China are not parties to that agreement," he noted.

The law also stipulates other mechanisms blocking the participation of Russian and Chinese companies in Czech nuclear projects, the diplomat said. "It is regrettable that such a politicized approach has prevailed in Prague, which contradicts economic logic and harms the interests of the relevant Czech business," he noted.

"It is no secret that our state corporation Rosatom intended to participate in the tender for expanding the Czech NPP, which is not merely the leader in the global nuclear power sector but also a long-standing and traditional partner of the Czech Republic, with whom we have indeed pursued fairly productive cooperation for decades," the spokesman added.

The construction of a new power unit at the Dukovany NPP is set to start in 2029 at the earliest and its trial commissioning is scheduled for 2036. It will replace one of four operating units built in 1985-1987.