France N-cooperation with India

France on Friday expressed interest in forging civil nuclear cooperation with India but said it would await for the outcome of talks between New Delhi and IAEA on a safeguards agreement.

The European country, which generates 90 per cent of electricity using atomic energy, said India needed to be brought into the international nuclear mainstream.

"We are in favour of initialising 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 on Thursday, said France is in "favour of India getting back to the international nuclear power agency. We have to create situartion 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.

Courtesy:timesofindia.com
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