India satisfied with progress on civil n-deal with France
27 Sep 2011
Washington: India is satisfied with the progress on the implementation of the bilateral civil nuclear deal with France and has conveyed to Paris that the issue of a government guarantee for it is under consideration. This has been conveyed to the French finance minister, Francois Baroin, by his Indian counterpart Pranab Mukherjee.
The meeting took place here on the sidelines of the annual meeting of the IMF and the World Bank.
In December 2010 during the visit of French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, to New Delhi, both nations signed the India- France cooperation agreement on the development of peaceful uses of nuclear energy and the Agreements on the protection of confidentiality of technical data and information relating to cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.
Referring to an existing MoU between the state-owned utility, Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd and French firm AREVA for construction of nuclear power reactors for civilian use, as a milestone, Mukherjee said the negotiations for the commercial agreement are nearly complete.
The issue of government guarantee for this proposal is under consideration of the finance ministry, he said.
The two leaders are also believed to have discussed issues related to cooperation in the defence sector and terrorism.
Mukherjee also informed his French counterpart the need to intensify efforts at the UN and in world capitals to bring about early adoption of the long overdue Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism.