Agence France-Presse,
New Delhi: India and France agreed Friday to push their military ties beyond arms sales, signing an accord on nuclear power cooperation as soon as New Delhi is allowed to enter the global atomic energy market.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said he had agreed with visiting French President Nicolas Sarkozy to go beyond a “buyer-seller relationship,” in which France is merely positioned as one of several international arms suppliers.
French officials said the two sides signed the framework of a planned bilateral accord on nuclear power research and supply, a key area of French expertise and seen as crucial to India's effort to fuel an economy currently expanding at a rate of nine percent.
“We have agreed to go beyond a buyer-seller relationship. We will increasingly focus on joint research and development projects, transfer of technology and greater military exchanges,” Singh told reporters.
“It is very important that India and France should cooperate, share information and intelligence gathering for defence of the values which are dear to both our countries,” he said in a joint news conference.
Sarkozy jetted into New Delhi early Friday without girlfriend Carla Bruni, although an Indian foreign ministry source said the ex-supermodel and pop singer may still join him.
The French president will be the chief guest at India's 59th Republic Day celebrations on Saturday, after which he will make a private visit the Taj Mahal — India's 17th century monument to love.
But in India on Friday, Sarkozy focused on business — with France lobbying hard for deals in a country ranked the biggest weapons buyer among emerging nations and expected to spend an estimated 30 billion dollars on arms over the next five years.
French-Indian defence ties took a blow last month when New Delhi cancelled a Eurocopter bid for a 600-million-dollar (410-million-euro) helicopter contract due to alleged irregularities. The alleged payment of bribes in a submarine deal is also being probed.
France was the second largest arms supplier to India after Russia but has now been overtaken by Israel. The United States is also pushing for a place in the Indian market.
However, French officials said India — traditionally non-aligned and keen to maintain a careful balance of arms suppliers — had agreed to invite a French consortium to upgrade its fleet of Mirage fighters in a contract worth up to 1.5 billion euros that Israel had also been chasing.
Nuclear cooperation has been in the works for years, aimed at allowing France to supply equipment and fuel to India once it has cleared hurdles with the UN's nuclear watchdog.
A joint statement Friday said “this agreement will form the basis of wide-ranging bilateral cooperation from basic and applied research to full civil nuclear cooperation including reactors, fuel supply and management.”
India is currently banned from buying fuel for atomic reactors and related equipment because of nuclear weapons tests in 1974 and 1988, but signed a deal with the United States in 2006 as a way of getting off the blacklist.
The American and French deals hinge on the outcome of negotiations between India and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and with the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group, which controls the global nuclear trade.
“The needs of India in energy are huge… If we do not let India accede to civilian nuclear energy it will have to go to more polluting means,” Sarkozy said, adding he expected to see an international consensus emerge within “weeks”.
The French nuclear energy group Areva says India, currently the world's fourth biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, will need 25 to 30 nuclear reactors.
Singh said the process would “take time” — alluding to domestic pressure from the government's Communist allies who say such a pact with the IAEA, which would involve some international inspections, compromises India's strategic programme.
India's Sikh community also used the visit to lobby against France's ban on wearing turbans in state schools.
“He (the Indian prime minister) will be wearing his turban when he meets the French President. It is the best evidence of how important a turban is to a Sikh,” religious leader Manjeet Singh told a news conference in New Delhi.
