Nuclear pact with South Korea

• India will soon sign its ninth civil nuclear agreement with its negotiators having finalised the text with South Korea
• The countries with which India has signed similar pacts are Russia, the United States, France, Mongolia, Argentina, Kazakhstan, the United Kingdom and Canada. Some are pure fuel supplies pact while others include all aspects of the relationship such as fuel supply, R&D and setting up of civil nuclear plants. The pact with South Korea will focus on the last two aspects.
• South Korea recently joined the ranks of civil nuclear power exporters when it bagged $20 billion worth of orders from the United Arab Emirates beating stiff competition from the French company Areva for building four nuclear plants
• The civil nuclear pact was a result of the all-round comprehensive relationship being forged by India with East Asian and South East Asian countries. India has signed a Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CEPA) with South Korea which, in the first full year of operation in 2010, led to a 46 per cent growth in trade.
• Interestingly, the growth rate of both South Korean and Indian exports were the same during this period.

Agreement with Japan?

With the civil nuclear agreement in the bag and CEPA showing good results, India is all set to sign a similar agreement with Japan following the arrival of Commerce & Industries Minister Anand Sharma in Tokyo. He will call on Prime Minister Naoto Kan on Tuesday to discuss ongoing cooperation in infrastructure projects.