India-EU to sign nuke pact; discuss free trade pact

New Delhi, Nov 5 (PTI) India and the European Union will
sign an agreement in civil nuclear field at their Summit here
Friday during which the two sides are also expected to give
a political push to the negotiations for a free trade pact.
The issue of climate change and global financial crisis
will also figure prominently in the talks between Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh and his Swedish counterpart Fredrik
Reinfeldt, whose country is the current chair of the 27-nation
grouping.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso will
also participate in the 10th annual Summit which the two sides
will also discuss stepped up cooperation in counter-terrorism
and look at ways to double trade to USD 200 billion by 2013.
The highlight of the Summit would be an agreement in the
field of civil nuclear that will facilitate joint research in
fusion energy.
The agreement "aims at intensifying cooperation to
develop scientific understanding and technological capability
underlying the fusion system in the long term. It will develop
a specific agenda for fusion research cooperation that goes
far beyond ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental
Research project)," the European Commission said here today.
The pact will mark India's formal participation in ITER,
an ambitious multi-country project to be based in Cadarache in
France at an estimated cost of about 4.6 billion Euro (USD 5.4
billion or Rs 25,000 crore). The project involves the US, EU,
Russia, China, Japan and South Korea. (MORE) PTI