France’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Laurent Fabius, on Thursday accepted that the elements of the recent Indo-U.S. agreement on nuclear liability could apply to other nations. In response to questions on the India-U.S. understanding last month on how to resolve the liability issue, he said it was for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to decide when he visits France in spring (between March and June) later this year.
At a press conference with Union Minister of State for Environment Prakash Javadekar, Mr. Fabius said he discussed nuclear issues among many other aspects in his meeting with Mr. Modi. On Wednesday, French embassy sources said France was keen on the details of the civil nuclear cooperation between India and the U.S.
India and France already have a civil nuclear cooperation under which the French company Areva is to set up six nuclear reactors in Jaitapur.
In a joint statement last February after the visit of President François Hollande to India, there was a reference to the ongoing collaborative projects on the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, and India and France agreed to further strengthen bilateral civil nuclear scientific cooperation.
A Memorandum of Understanding was signed in February 2009 between Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited and AREVA for setting up 6x1650 MWe EPR (EPR is a third generation pressurised water reactor (PWR) units at Jaitapur. The statement said the status in regard to the first two EPR units was reviewed and NPCIL and AREVA were engaged actively in techno-commercial discussions. Mr. Hollande and the then Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh had hoped for an expeditious conclusion of the negotiations.
Regarding his meeting with Mr. Modi, Mr. Fabius said, “We touched on different subjects of our strategic partnership in various fields, energy, urban planning, space and tourism and many areas. We did not discuss in full detail on every subject.”
He added that issues could be discussed further during Mr. Modi’s official visit. He also mentioned Mr. Modi’s special phone call to the French President after the recent terror attack in Paris. The issue of terrorism was also discussed as it was a common concern.
Mr. Javadekar said he and Mr. Fabius spoke on various issues of environment protection and climate change. He said that Mr. Fabius had agreed to consider a ministerial or high-level official meeting sometime during the middle of this year to discuss and sort out issues which often remain unresolved at the negotiator’s level.
