President Pratibha Patil has expressed confidence that the India-South Korea Agreement on Cooperation in the Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy, signed during her just-concluded state visit to Korea, would enable the two countries to cooperate in this area.
Talking to journalists on-board the special flight bringing her back home from her two-nation visit to Korea and Mongolia, she said on Saturday that “the nuclear security initiative conference will be taking place in Korea [next year] and India will participate.”
The initiative aims at supporting all measures essential for the global security architecture, especially those that help prevent nuclear materials from reaching the hands of terrorists. Last year in April, U.S. President Barack Obama hosted the Nuclear Security Summit attended by 47 nations.
Ms. Patil was pleased to note that both in Seoul and Ulaanbaater there was a “clear desire” to “expand and deepen relations with India.” In her meetings with the Presidents of the two countries and other leaders she “fully reciprocated these sentiments and indicated that we wanted to take our Strategic Partnership with the Republic of Korea and our Comprehensive Partnership with Mongolia to a higher trajectory.”
In Korea, she told President Lee Myung-bak that India looked forward to launching Korean satellites. She also expressed the desire to upgrade the existing bilateral Comprehensive Economic Partnership, while seeking greater market access for Indian goods, especially pharmaceuticals and IT-enabled services as well as enhanced Korean investment in India. The Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade will visit India later this year, she told journalists.
In Mongolia, President Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj and she signalled a wish for deepening economic relations and enhanced trade, while a defence pact signed by the two countries during her visit would add “depth and substance to India-Mongolia ties.”
She was of the view that India's relationship with these two countries had an “enormous potential,” while her return visit to the two countries — President Lee visited India in January 2010 and President Elbegdorj in September 2009 — had given this relationship a momentum. Both these countries were important partners in North-East Asia and an integral part of India's ‘Look East policy,' she said.
In response to a question, she said women politicians, including parliamentarians in Mongolia, who called on her, showed interest in the procedures in India for legislating on reservation for women in Parliament and State Assemblies. As India was trying to build a consensus on 33 per cent reservation, the Mongolian women in politics said they could demand an increase from their current 25 per cent reservation if India were to legislate on this.
Separately, it was learnt from officials accompanying the President that at the farewell meeting with President Elbegdorj in Ulaanbaater on Saturday morning, the Mongolian President made a most touching remark showing great warmth and cordiality: “We feel our sister and brother from our spiritual home [India] have come to meet us.”
