MOSCOW: The decision by India and Russia at the recent (June 1) annual Summit to undertake joint economic projects in third countries including in the area of clean energy have opened up possibilities of collaboration in civilian nuclear energy sector India and Russia are currently fine-tuning their civil nuclear energy partnership in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.  India with its experience in the civil nuclear industry will train personnel and provide expertise to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.  India has entered into civilian nuclear partnerships arrangements with both Dhaka and Colombo.  Russia is building Bangladesh's maiden nuclear power plant in Roopur. ATOMEXPO 2017 that was inaugurated here on 2017 would seek to explore further opportunities for bilateral partnership in third countries in Africa and Southeast Asia.  ATOMEXPO organized annually by Russia’s state-run nuclear agency ROSATOM since 2009 is globally the largest international exhibition and business platform to discuss the present situation of the nuclear industry worldwide. Besides Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant where Units 5 & 6 will be set up following the agreement on June 1 annual Summit at St Petersburg Russia has the biggest presence globally in new reactors market across Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe at a time when US nuclear major Westinghouse is facing bankruptcy issue and French nuclear major Areva is undergoing restructuring. Indian and Russian civil nuclear partnership could be extended to the area of joint extraction of natural uranium and the production of nuclear fuel and nuclear waste elimination, Rosatom officials told ET here.  Rosatom has 29 nuclear reactors in various stages of planning and construction in several countries including in Jordan, Hungary, Egypt, Iran, Finland, Turkey and Argentina. Indo-Russian Strategic Vision document signed in 2014 mentions that the two countries would explore “opportunities for sourcing materials, equipment and services from Indian industry for the construction of the Russian designed nuclear power plants in third countries”.  The vision document also suggested that the two countries “would examine the possibility of technical cooperation in mining activities within their territories and collaborate in exploration and mining activities in third countries”.  Rosatom has a target of enhancing their foreign order to $150 billion over the next five years. Atom as a basis for zero carbon energy future was the main event on Monday where ROSATOM officials, companies, international organizations and leading experts discussed contemporary challenges of the power sector globally and role of nuclear generation as a reliable, economically predicted and environmentally friendly energy source amid the US President’s decision to withdraw from the Paris deal. India’s decision to expand footprints in the nuclear energy sector including 10 indigenously developed reactors will be in keeping with its commitment to clean energy notwithstanding US withdrawal from the Paris accord.  ROSATOM is also involved with Indian companies for localization of the carbon fabrics production based on Russian carbon fibre.  This will be in keeping with spirit of localisation of products under Make in India initiative. The three-day ATOMEXPO Forum being held near historic Red Square includes round tables on -- Innovative technological solutions in the nuclear energy life cycle as a condition of sustainable development; Future investments; Nuclear industry ecological safety -- strategy, regulation, technology among other issues.  Global experts will discuss the role of digital technologies in ensuring the competitiveness of nuclear energy, evaluate IT platforms and consider best practices in the introduction of digital technologies.