IndiaPost.com - France wants N-coop with India, but will await IAEA talks

NEW DELHI: France has expressed interest in forging civil nuclear cooperation with India but said it would await the outcome of talks between New Delhi and IAEA on a safeguards agreement. The European country, which generates 90 percent of electricity using atomic energy, said India needed to be brought into the international nuclear mainstream.

"We are in favor of initialing a sort of strategic agreement but we have to wait for the (International Atomic Energy) Agency," visiting French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner told journalists here soon after meeting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Kouchner, who held wide-ranging talks with External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee December 20, said France is in "favor of India getting back to the international nuclear power agency. We have to create situation in terms of international law.

We are waiting for that." Civil nuclear cooperation figured in the discussions between Mukherjee and Kouchner, with the Indian side apprising the French leader about the ongoing talks with IAEA for the proposed safeguards agreement as a follow up to the atomic deal with the US.

Paris has maintained that India needed to be brought into the nuclear mainstream as it would benefit the NPT system. Kouchner, whose visit takes place about a month ahead of President Nicholas Sarkozy's maiden tour here, said the two countries were working on a number of agreements.

"We have a lot of projects and we are eager to see their results during the visit of the President," he said. Sarkozy, the Chief Guest at the upcoming Republic Day function, will undertake a four-day visit here from January 24.

Kouchner said Sarkozy's visit would underline new strategic equations between India and France and highlight the common approach towards global issues like developments in Afghanistan, Pakistan, the UN reforms and climate change.

"Friendship will be the highlight of the visit. Friendship is not a question of money. It's a question of sharing a common global view and approach to global problems. We are very close to the Indian position," he said.