France Backs India’s Nuclear Bid

French President Nicolas Sarkozy expressed support today for a planned U.S.-Indian nuclear trade deal and said he hoped France would also be able to participate in greater nuclear cooperation with New Delhi (see GSN, Jan. 22).

“India has never proliferated, and it has made it clear that it wants to separate its civilian nuclear program from its military one,” he told reporters while visiting Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The proposed U.S.-Indian pact would enable India to purchase U.S. nuclear materials and technology, but only after India agrees to allow the International Atomic Energy Agency to monitor Delhi’s civilian nuclear activities.  India would also need to receive an exemption from international nuclear trade guidelines that currently ban such sales to nations that have not joined the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty or do not allow international monitoring of all their nuclear programs.

Indian officials met this month with IAEA officials to negotiate the inspections agreement (see GSN, Jan. 14).

“To the best of my knowledge, it’s only a matter of weeks and the authorization (from the IAEA) will be given,” Sarkozy said today (Nathalie Schuck, Associated Press/International Herald Tribune, Jan. 25).

Saying the French nuclear technology is the world’s safest, Sarkozy promised his help in supporting India’s nuclear quest.

“If we do not let India accede to civilian nuclear energy, it will have to go to more polluting means,” he said.  “This is one of the stakes of my visit in India:  to bring to fruition this evolution that I deem essential for India’s development and the protection of the global environment” (Agence France-Presse/Spacewar.com, Jan. 25).

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