France, Pakistan seek nuclear cooperation deal
UAE: France and Pakistan are negotiating a partnership including
nuclear cooperation and French President Nicolas Sarkozy could travel to
Pakistan in the autumn to sign a deal, a source close to Sarkozy said on
Monday.
The source said talks were ongoing on a wide variety of issues
including nuclear security, an extremely sensitive question since a
Pakistani scientist was at the centre of the world's biggest nuclear
proliferation scandal in 2004.
"We're in the process of negotiating. We've given ourselves two or
three more months," said the source close to Sarkozy during a short
visit by the French president to Abu Dhabi, where he will open a French
military base on Tuesday.
Sarkozy met Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari in Paris on May 15
and was reported by the Pakistani foreign minister as saying that France
wanted Islamabad to obtain a wide-ranging deal to buy nuclear equipment
like the one granted to India.
France has not confirmed that was exactly what Sarkozy had told
Zardari. Paris said only that Sarkozy wanted Pakistan to improve its
nuclear security and was prepared to cooperate with the Asian country in
that respect.
The source close to Sarkozy said that since his meeting with Zardari,
the French leader had also met the Pakistani army chief of staff.
The source said Zardari had been informed of that.
Abu Dhabi, tuesday, Reuters
|