The Canadian Nuclear Horn Sells Uranium To India (Rev 15:2)

 

 Canada to sell uranium to India in breakthrough deal

BY AGENCIES

• $283m contract is for the supply of 7.1m pounds of uranium concentrate over the next five years for use in a growing number of Indian nuclear power plants
• Canadian PM announces visa on arrival for Indians

Canada’s prime minister announced a breakthrough deal Wednesday to supply uranium to India for electricity generation, putting behind decades of discord over India’s surreptitious use of Canadian technologies to build atomic bombs.

The agreement was signed in Ottawa during a visit by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the first Indian leader to visit Canada in 42 years, since Indira Gandhi.

The  Can$350 million (US$283 million) contract is for the supply of 7.1 million pounds of uranium concentrate over the next five years, for use in a growing number of Indian nuclear power plants.

The uranium is to be sourced from the northern Saskatchewan mines of Cameco, the world’s third-largest uranium producer, accountable for 16 per cent of world production. It currently exports about Can$1 billion worth of uranium annually.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said a nuclear cooperation agreement concluded in 2012 laid the groundwork for the two Commonwealth nations “to turn the page on what had been in our judgment an unnecessarily frosty relationship for too along”.

The 2012 pact signed by Harper and Modi’s predecessor, Manmohan Singh, allows Canadian companies to export nuclear materials for peaceful uses, in accordance with Canada’s nuclear non-proliferation policy.

Its ratification had been delayed several years as the two nations could not agree on how to track India’s use of nuclear material to ensure it was put to peaceful purposes.

New Delhi balked at Ottawa’s demand to be allowed to monitor the safe use of its nuclear exports. In the end, the two countries agreed to set up a joint panel to supervise the exports.

New Delhi, backed by the United States, also won an exemption in 2008 from the Nuclear Suppliers Group, which governs global nuclear trade, to allow it to buy reactors and fuel from abroad, even though it has not signed the non-proliferation treaty.

Modi told a joint press conference with Harper that the uranium procurement deal marks “a new era of bilateral cooperation (and)… trust and confidence in India”. “This gives the energy to our relations,” he said.

The two leaders also pledged a renewed push to get stalled free trade talks back on track.

Bilateral trade is small, only Can$6.3 billion in 2014, according to Canadian government figures.

“Both Mr. Modi and I believe it could be worth much more,” Harper said. “Canada has what India needs and vice versa.”

Harper said he hoped to have a free trade deal completed by September. However, “there are many issues to be resolved,” he added.

ON ARRIVAL VISAS:

The Canadian PM also announced that Indians will be given visa on arrival in Canada.

Addressing the Indian community at an event in Toronto on Thursday, where Modi was also present, Harper said, “India and Canada’s friendship is a friendship we truly value.” He said the Indian community in Canada had grown in size and so had its contribution to economic strength and culture.

Referring to Modi’s first visit to Canada as India’s prime minister, Harper said: “His first visit has been historic.”

Modi’s visit to Canada comes after stops in France, where he ordered 36 Rafale fighter jets in a multi-billion-euro agreement, and Germany.

Nearly 1.2 million Canadians trace their roots to India. South Asians are the largest visible minority in Canada.