India France Civil Nuclear Agreement Signed

[LRE]

France, India sign major N-deal



Wednesday, October 01, 2008

PARIS: France and India on Tuesday signed a landmark nuclear cooperation pact which opens the way for the sale of French nuclear reactors to New Delhi.

“India and France welcome the signature of a bilateral accord for civil nuclear cooperation which will form the basis of enlarged bilateral cooperation in the fields of energy and research,” a French presidency statement said.

The accord was signed following talks between President Nicolas Sarkozy and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who travelled to France after a US trip that also saw the House of Representatives back a US atomic pact with India.

Manmohan Singh declined to speak to reporters following Tuesday’s talks, and French officials insist it is up to India to define the scope of its energy needs.

The French-Indian pact marks a key step in India’s bid to secure a new position as a nuclear power as the country faces a critical shortage of energy to fuel its booming economy.

It effectively ends a ban on civilian nuclear trade with New Delhi imposed in 1974 when India used its civilian nuclear programme to produce and successfully test an atomic bomb. The Vienna-based Nuclear Suppliers Group lifted the ban in early September after hard lobbying by Washington.

The world’s second producer of nuclear energy after the United States, France is vying to lead a worldwide revival of the industry, fuelled by worries about global warming and rising energy prices.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Tuesday said she hoped that a civilian nuclear pact with India will pass the final US legislative hurdle, saying it would “solidify” US-Indian ties.

But Rice, who has lobbied for passage of the deal that would lift a three decade-old ban on civilian nuclear trade with India, was non-committal when a reporter asked if she expected the Senate to pass it on Wednesday.

“I certainly hope that it can get done, because it would be a landmark agreement for India and the United States,” Rice said, adding, “And it would be a way to solidify what has been an extraordinary period in which US-Indian relations have reached the kind of deepening that is really appropriate for two of the world’s largest and great democracies,” she added. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he hoped the agreement would be ready for a vote in the Senate on Wednesday. The House of Representatives passed the pact by 298-117 vote on Saturday. Rice said she “appreciated” the efforts of key lawmakers to push the deal forward.

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