Sarkozy to Have Dinner with PM Sunday


New Delhi, Dec 5 (IANS) As negotiations for a framework civil nuclear pact go down to the wire, French President Nicolas Sarkozy meets Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over dinner Sunday night in a bid to iron out differences relating to France's concerns over India's civil nuclear liability law.

Sarkozy flies in here Sunday evening after an overnight stay at Agra and a four-hour stop in Bangalore Saturday.

Manmohan Singh will host a private dinner for Sarkozy, his spouse Carla Bruni and senior French ministers at his 7, Race Course Road residence.

The two leaders are expected to spend some time on a one-on-one before the dinner during which they are likely to touch on some key issues like civil nuclear cooperation that will be discussed in detail at the delegation-level talks Monday.

Manmohan Singh and Sarkozy, who have met several times in the last three years and enjoy a good rapport, are expected to share views over a host of global issues like reform of the international financial institutions, the G20 forum of major and emerging economies, climate change and non-proliferation.

Sarkozy is expected to voice concerns over India's civil nuclear liability bill which is seen by foreign suppliers as onerous and press the prime minister to bring India's rules and procedures in consonance with international practice, as enshrined in the Vienna Convention, diplomatic sources said.

The meeting may resolve issues that are coming in the way of the two sides signing a framework agreement between French nuclear giant Areva and Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) for building two European Pressurised Reactors (EPR).

The framework accord is expected to lay down broad rules for Areva that is building two nuclear reactors initially, which will eventually increase to six. Areva plans to set up two atomic power plants of 1,650 MW capacity each at Jaitapur in Maharashtra.

Areva has made it clear that it is awaiting notification of implementing rules of the nuclear liability law to know the extent of the compensation they will have to pay in case of an atomic accident in facilities set up by it.

Sarkozy began his second visit to India from IT hub Bangalore where he reiterated France's support for India's candidacy for an expanded UN Security Council and New Delhi's bid to join top nuclear clubs, including the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), that govern global trade in dual-use technologies.

The two sides are likely to sign some agreements related to space, technology, nuclear cooperation and culture.

France became the first country to sign a bilateral civil nuclear cooperation pact with India Sep 30, 2008 after the NSG granted New Delhi a one-time exemption from the existing rules of nuclear commerce.

  

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Comment on this article

  • Satish Chandra, Buffalo, NY, U.S.A.

    Sun, Dec 05 2010

    DEADLY TAMIL SCAM: LOOTING INDIA & SABOTAGING ITS DEFENCE

    I am India's expert in strategic defence and the father of India's strategic program including the Integrated Guided Missile Development Program and I have repeatedly said in my blog titled 'Nuclear Supremacy for India Over U.S.', which can be found by a Yahoo search with the title, that there is no substitute for full-yield explosive tests of nuclear weapons.

    In a press release dated November 24, 2010 I said: Besides C.I.A.-RAW disinformation about R. Chidambaram's sense of superiority to white countries in designing thermonuclear weapons being responsible for the failed 1998 thermonuclear weapon test, Russian and French help has been offered with thermonuclear weapons designs and to test the weapon(s) in a laboratory so as to bring India's strategic program at its most vital core under control of white countries and keep the inferior Indian njggers in their place.

    In a press release dated November 26, 2010 I said: When I say there is no substitute for full yield explosive tests of nuclear weapons, I say this from a purely engineering point of view and not for demonstrating to the world that our weapons work. As I said in a letter to the press after the 1998 tests when R. Chidambaram claimed that his computer models enable him to build higher yield weapons which need not undergo explosive tests, 'One could not legitimately rely on an automobile engine developed on that basis if your life depended on its working the very first time it is ever used, much less a nuclear weapon'. This applies to both computer models and laboratory models. What happens in a high energy lab is a highly imperfect laboratory model of a nuclear weapon which does not take account of a multitude of things. If computer models and laboratory models were sufficient, there will be no need for flight tests of missiles and jet aircraft, etc.

    The Physics of what happens in a nuclear explosion cannot adequately be replicated in a high energy lab. Laboratory models of missiles and jet aircraft may not have this deficiency but laboratory models of nuclear weapons do.

    In a press release dated November 29, 2010 I said: It is now being put out that a "fix" has been applied to the 1998 failed thermonuclear weapon design and there is no need for an explosive test of the "fixed" design because the designers have "confidence" it will work. But it is a very foolish designer who does not test his "fix" with an explosive test. Didn't R. Chidambaram have confidence in his 1998 design which failed? There has been no "fix" until the weapon is shown to work in an explosive test shown as much to the designer as to the world. A designer who says it is not necessary is too stupid to design even a toaster, much less a nuclear weapon.

    See my blog, above, for the rest.

    Satish Chandra

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