Indian PM heads to US, France

INDIA: India’s prime minister embarked Monday on a 10-day visit to the United States 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 United Nations General Assembly in New York and an India-EU 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.

It would mark a milestone in warming ties between the United States and India, a former Soviet ally, said security analyst C. Uday Bhaskar.

New Delhi, which is critically short of energy to fuel its booming economy, is looking at investments worth billions of dollars in its power sector.

Signed by US President George W Bush and Singh in July 2005, the pact is awaiting final approval from US Congress.

Lalit Mansingh, a former ambassador to Washington, noted the US Congressional calendar was “very tight,” with the session slated to end September 26 ahead of November 4 polls.

But the passage of the deal “doesn’t seem impossible,” he said, pointing to mounting internal pressure for an endorsement ahead of Singh’s arrival in Washington.

Before leaving India, Singh said he looked forward to discussing “the entire range of issues on our bilateral agenda with the United States, including our civil nuclear initiative.”

New Delhi, which agreed to open some of its reactors for inspection, already has approvals to buy fuel and technology from the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), which controls global atomic trade.

Mansingh said that, even if the US deal was not signed, a nuclear cooperation accord with France was likely to be completed in Paris on September 30.

The French pact, negotiated in January during President Nicolas Sarkozy’s visit to New Delhi, is ready to be signed, according to Indian and French ministers.

Kanwal Sibal, a former ambassador to Paris, said France had been a “solid supporter of a nuclear deal with India for 10 years now, long before others.”

“It was the first country to begin a strategic dialogue with India after our 1998 nuclear tests, in order to create diplomatic space in our favour,” he said.

Since the election of Sarkozy last year, France has supported India “even more robustly” on issues like a permanent seat at the UN Security Council, Sibal said. 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.

Before returning home, Singh will also take part in the ninth India-EU Summit in Marseilles aimed at shoring up ties with the 27-member grouping, which is India’s largest trading partner.

New Delhi, Tuesday, AFP