Click to play videoMarseilles: Making it clear that India will not support Iran's nuclear weapon ambitions, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday joined the European Union in asking Tehran to "re-establish" confidence in the nature of its nuclear programme.
"We don't support a nuclear weapon state emerging in our region. So there is no question of supporting nuclear weapon ambitions of Iran," Manmohan Singh said sending out assurance at the India-EU Summit in the French coastal city Marseilles — an assurance clearly timed with an eye on his meeting with France President Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday in Paris.
“We look forward to working with France and other countries in this area. We are having a summit tomorrow (with France) and I hope some results will come out of this summit,” the PM said.
Indications are that the PM will sign a bilateral nuclear deal with Sarkozy.
“Tomorrow we will discuss the issue of civil nuclear cooperation and will take a decision,” Sarkozy said.
The question is whether Sarkozy will be forthcoming on the sensitive issue of transferring Enrichment and Reprocessing technology.
Indian diplomats in Marseilles say Sarkozy's support for full Indian membership in the ITER project is an indication that he is keen on signing the pact. The project, although ong-term in its scope, hopes to harness fusion power to generate virtually limitless electricity — a technology a country with huge energy demand like India would want to acquire.
Tuesday's summit could also clear the road for a clutch of French companies led by state-owned Areva. Paris has offered India its top of the line EPR reactors that can generate more than 1,000 MW of power.
India will also be waiting to see how the endgame in the nuclear deal is played out in the US Senate. There are indications that the deal may figure in the Senate's deliberations on Tuesday.
(For updates you can share with your friends, follow IBNLive on Facebook, Twitter and Google+)
displayed with permission. Use of the CNN name and/or logo on or as part of CNN-IBN does not derogate from the intellectual property rights of Cable News Network in respect of them.