France, India sign $9.3 billion nuclear deal
Baku, December 7 (AZERTAC). France signed a $9.3-billion framework agreement to sell two nuclear reactors to India during a trade-centered visit by French President Nicolas Sarkozy to New Delhi Monday.
India inked the deal with France`s state-run nuclear organization, Areva, for the purchase of two reactors for a new plant in Jaitapur in the western state of Maharashtra.
“Negotiations [with Areva] have reached an advanced stage to pave the way for the launching of nuclear power reactors in Jaitapur in partnership with Indian industry,” Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told a joint news conference after the agreement.
The deal is short of a final sale contract, but it means Areva has moved ahead of US and Japanese competitors in the race to sell reactors to India, which aims to tap atomic power for a quarter of its electricity demands by 2050.
Russia is already constructing two nuclear power units in the southern state of Tamil Nadu.
Deals totaling 15 billion euros ($20 billion) have been signed or are about to be signed with Indian companies, Sarkozy`s office said, including a leasing agreement for 14 Airbus planes and the modernisation of 51 French-made Mirage fighter jets.
The French leader is on a four-day trip to India, where he is seeking deeper trade ties while seeking to build a partnership with a democratic country seen as a counterbalance in Asia to China.
The agreement “shows the willingness of France to propose a total partnership to India in the area of civil nuclear power,” Sarkozy told the news conference with Singh.
Sarkozy reiterated his support for India to have a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council - a key foreign policy objective for New Delhi - and suggested it might simply upgrade its current temporary seat in 2012.
“It`s a question of balance in the world. We can`t exclude a billion individuals,” he said, referring to India`s population of 1.2 billion.
Sarkozy also pleased his hosts by calling on neighboring Pakistan to combat extremists on its territory, who have often targeted India, and called for a stable Afghanistan.
Sarkozy completes his tour with a trip to Mumbai Tuesday, India`s commercial capital that was hit by Islamist militant attacks two years ago in which 166 people were killed.
Sarkozy`s visit comes after that of Obama last month and ahead of trips to India by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
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