Nuclear Deals in Sight as Indian PM Heads to U.S., France. AFP, September 22, 2008. "India's prime minister embarked Monday on a 10-day visit to the U.S. and France which is expected to mark the country's return to global nuclear commerce after 30 years in the cold. Manmohan Singh, who will also attend the U.N. General Assembly in New York and an India-E.U. gathering in Marseilles, expects to finalise at least one landmark atomic deal before returning on October 2. In New York, he will meet world leaders including Pakistan's newly elected President Asif Ali Zardari and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, said foreign secretary Shiv Shankar Menon. Singh will then make a brief visit to Washington on September 25, when officials hope to sign a bilateral accord allowing India to buy nuclear power plants, technology and fuel… Lalit Mansingh, a former ambassador to Washington… said that, even if the U.S. deal was not signed, a nuclear cooperation accord with France was likely to be completed in Paris on September 30… India has been denied access to civilian nuclear technology since it tested an atomic weapon in 1974 and refused to sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Washington spearheaded efforts that resulted this month in the Vienna-based NSG lifting a global ban on trade with India."
2008-09-22
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