Hyderabad: French Ambassador Jerome Bonnafont declared here on Thursday that a bilateral agreement between France and India on civilian nuclear energy cooperation was “technically ready” and it could be signed as soon as the IAEA safeguards pact was okayed and the Nuclear Suppliers’ Group granted exemption.
In an interview to The Hindu, he said it was France which “originated” the idea in 1998 that there was need for a specific status for India as far as civilian nuclear energy cooperation was concerned.
The set of agreements that India was discussing with the IAEA, NSG, France, Russia and the U.S. was the direct consequence of “this conviction of ours” that as India was a responsible nuclear power (even if it is not a member of Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty), there had to be a special regime for it to have sustainable development.
“We are in favour of the IAEA agreement if India decides to do so, to enter into force.” France had repeatedly said that it was in favour of NSG exemption for India.
Mr. Bonnafont said it was impossible to have an agreement without IAEA nod and NSG exemption as it was against international law. “We believe that it is not up to us to talk for India, but if we look at our experience of civilian nuclear energy, the decisions we have made had enhanced our sovereignty, increased our energy independence and at the same time put us in the best position in Europe to fight climate change. We believe it is a win-win situation for India and the world to go in that direction.”
Describing the relations between India and France as excellent, he said it was “very old friendship” that had developed into a strategic partnership, which meant that France and India shared the same view of what the world should become.
On bilateral trade, he was optimistic of meeting the target of doubling the existing two-way trade of more than 6 billion euros to 12 billion euros by 2012 as envisaged by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Mr. Bonnafont described the joint building of Scorpene submarine as a flagship project that involved technology transfer, cooperation from company-to-company and strategic vision of relationship.
On the education front, he said France planned to triple in the next few years the number of students visiting it from 1,000 to 1,500 at present.
Two more French consulates would be opened by the end of the year — in Bangalore and Kolkata. The Bangalore consulate would cover both Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, he said.
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