India, EU to sign civil nuclear pact by next year

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In a major step towards realising its nuclear ambitions, India is engaged in talks with the European Union (EU) to sign a civil nuclear cooperation agreement and the deal is expected to be inked by next year.

“An agreement is expected to be signed between India’s department of atomic energy and joint research centre of the EU. It will mostly focus on areas of research and energy,” EU’s ambassador to India Joao Cravinho said in New Delhi at the sidelines of an event.

Cravinho said talks between the two sides are on and the agreement should be signed next year.

The deal would provide a major boost to India’s efforts in getting an entry to the elite Nuclear Suppliers Group, considering the clout of EU on the global platform.

“There were concerns raised by few countries about signing an agreement because India is not a signatory of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, but a consensus has been reached now,” he said.

Both the sides and countries within the EU are ironing out the differences over the “language” to be used in the draft.

After the landmark Indo-US nuclear deal, India has signed nuclear deals with Russia, Kazakhstan, United Kingdom, South Korea, Mongolia and France.

It also signed a nuclear cooperation agreement with Australia in September, paving way to import uranium for its reactors.

1 COMMENT

  1. They are signing numbers of nuclear pacts but still the poor Indian lives in the shadow of darkness. Some one must ponder on the situation that a country who is signing deals for civilian but keep on making progress in military missile is a clear sign they are diverting the technology as they did with CANDU reactor.

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