India, Canada sign nuclear cooperation agreement
The Indian government has signed a new nuclear cooperation agreement with Canada.
The Canada Minister for Natural Resources , Mr James Gordon Carr, currently on a visit to India, called on the Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh and discussed a wide range of issues of mutual interest including civil-nuclear cooperation between the two countries.
The Minister was accompanied by a delegation consisting of Canada’s Deputy Minister for Natural Resources Ms Christyne Tremblay, Minister’s Chief of Staff Ms Janet Annesley, Director of Communications Ms Laurel Munroe, Canada’s High Commissioner to India Mr Nadir Patel, Minister (Commercial) High Commission of Canada Mr Brian Parrott, Deputy Director Energy Ms Christine Angelo and members from Canada’s Industry & Marketing sector.
While recalling the traditional friendly relations between the two countries, Dr Jitendra Singh said that the most distinctive feature of Indo-Canadian relations is that these have been consistently compatible, without even a single intervening phase of bitterness or unpleasantness. This has helped the two countries to achieve positive collaboration in various sectors including in the area of nuclear energy which is now a success story, he added.
Dr Jitendra Singh recalled the visit of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi to Canada in April 2015, during which a long term Uranium procurement contract was signed by Department of Atomic Energy, Government of India with the Canadian Uranium producer CAMECO. Thereafter, the first consignment of Canadian Uranium reached India in December 2015 and the second consignment is expected by November this year, he observed.
As a country with large energy requirements, Dr Jitendra Singh said that India looks forward to promoting nuclear energy production at a significant scale and the two nations can jointly work to achieve this. He referred to common technological base of Pressurized Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR) in which India and Canada are global leaders and which is an area offering opportunity of potential bilateral cooperation between the two countries.
Dr Jitendra Singh expressed satisfaction to note that the Canadian delegation had also planned a visit to Mumbai where they would get an opportunity to interact with the scientists at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) and Department of Atomic Energy.
Reciprocating Dr Jitendra Singh’s observations, Mr James Carr said that he looks forward to greater growth in Indo-Canadian cooperation during the years ahead. He also extended invitation to Dr Jitendra Singh to visit Canada at the time of his convenience.