India, Canada to sign nuke co-operation pact

NEW DELHI: After the G-20 Summit in Toronto this weekend winds up, India and Canada are likely to sign a civil nuclear cooperation agreement that will mark turning of a full circle.

After the May 1974 nuclear test in Pokhran, Canada was outraged. It protested that the plutonium manufactured at ‘CIRUS,’ the research reactor it gifted to India, had been used in the explosion. Uranium-rich Canada then put on hold further transfer of nuclear fuel and technology to India.

Canada next took a leading part in bringing together the Nuclear Suppliers Group, a cartel which trade in nuclear fuel, equipment and technology only with countries that signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. And in 1998, there were fresh sanctions after India exploded another device at Pokhran.   

“We don’t look back, we look at the future,” Vivek Katju, Secretary (West) with the External Affairs Ministry said on Tuesday, letting reporters know there had been ‘progress’ on finalising an agreement on cooperation in nuclear energy.

The nuke agreement and others on cooperation in mining, education and culture could be signed after India-Canada bilateral meetings, following the G-20 Summit.

This would be the fourth meeting in about 20 months of the Group of 20, made up of advanced as well as emerging economies now mainly discussing the aftermath of the just past global recession.

Katju confirmed that the nuclear energy agreement would cover sale of uranium as well as areas such as research and nuclear waste management.  

Asked if the proposed agreement allowed sale of nuclear energy reactors by Canadian companies, Katju referred reporters to the Department of Atomic Energy.

But with Canadian companies eager to do more business with energy-hungry India, the pact is expected to include this provision.

The agreement is expected to be on the lines that India has signed with countries such as the US, France and Russia.