Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom is holding active negotiations with more than 40 African countries on cooperation in various fields, CEO Alexey Likhachev said.

“If speaking exactly about the presence of legal relations, then 29 countries. We have legally significant obligations in 29 countries out of 54 African sovereigns. The figure can be boldly increased to 40-42, where we have the active stage of talks,” he told journalists at the Russia-Africa summit, The Caspian Post reports, citing TASS.

Likhachev said the discussions cover a range of areas, including exploration and production at uranium and rare-earth deposits, as well as the establishment of nuclear science and technology centers.

“Nuclear power plants, certainly,” he added.

The Rosatom chief executive also said the company would soon begin implementing five additional nuclear power plant projects of both small and large capacity.