India, Canada to sign historic nuclear agreement this week

Toronto, Jun 23 (PTI) India and Canada are set to sign
a civil nuclear agreement that will allow New Delhi to secure
uranium, nuclear equipment and technology to meet its energy
needs during Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit in
Toronto for the upcoming G-20 Summit.
The four-day visit commences on June 26.
Canada will become the latest country with which India
shall have civil nuclear deal since the Nuclear Suppliers
Group (NSG) allowed New Delhi to resume global nuclear trade
in September 2008.
India has already signed similar agreements with
countries like the US, France and Russia.
The deal will remove the last irritant in the way of
stronger political, economic and strategic ties between the
two countries.
Both the countries have declared their resolve to
triple bilateral trade from around CAD 5 billion to CAD 15
billion in the next five years.
"Besides, a number of agreements and Memorandum of
Understanding (MoU) are under discussion and negotiations with
the Canadian side. Some of these have made substantial
progress and if concluded before the visit in all respects,
may be signed during the visit," official sources said on
Tuesday.
Apart from civil nuclear cooperation, both countries
are expected to sign MoUs for Cooperation in Mining, Higher
Education, Culture and Social Security, they said.
Agreements and MoUs will be signed after a bilateral
meeting between Singh and his Canadian counterpart Stephen
Harper on June 27.
Thirty five years after it banned nuclear supplies to
New Delhi, Ottawa lifted the sanction on September 2008. The
ban was imposed after the Pokhran nuclear test in 1974. PTI