India, S. Korea reach N-cooperation deal
India and South Korea have reached an agreement on civil nuclear cooperation, marking the ninth such pact that New Delhi has finalised since getting the NSG waiver in 2008. This announcement was made after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met South Korean President Lee Myung-bak here on Friday on the sidelines of the Asean Summit. “We have finalised agreement on cooperation in civil uses of nuclear energy which is now awaiting signature,” National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon told reporters after the meeting.
Korea will be the ninth country with which India will be signing the nuclear agreement after it got the waiver from the NSG in 2008. The others are the US, France, Russia, Canada, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Argentina and Namibia.
The NSA noted that the two countries have made considerable progress in various aspects of the relations, including civil aviation and space.
The two leaders also discussed issues relating to G-20 and stressed that it is important not only to take decisions but have a system of systematic implementation so that they are carried forward over several years.
Both agreed to work together in G-20, whose Summit is taking place in Seoul, the capital of South Korea, in November.
Dr Singh and Mr Lee also discussed various aspects of the relations but significantly Korean steel project Posco in Orissa, which is stuck in clearances, did not figure in their talks, according to Mr Menon. On the eve of the meeting between Dr Singh and Mr Lee, commerce minister Anand Sharma on Thursday promised to address the clearance issues related to Posco steel plant in Orissa in a “very constructive manner”.
The $12-billion Posco project of South Korea, the largest foreign investment project in India, got stuck due to of clearances. —PTI
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