Manmohan may ink sub deal with France

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (R) greets United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Chairperson and Congress Party President, Sonia Gandhi (L) and his cabinet ministers at his residence in New Delhi yesterday before his departure to France and New York. PHOTO: AFP

In a departure statement to the media, Singh said his visit to Paris was aimed at strengthening India's strategic partnership with France and expanding bilateral ties in trade, space, defence, nuclear, science and technology, civil aviation and culture.

Singh will have talks with French President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Dominique Villepin today covering a wide range of bilateral and international issues.

The two countries are likely to sign a multi-billion dollar deal for France's supply of submarines to India, which has been hanging for some time now.

From India's point of view, France is a key European Union ally as Paris has been supportive of India's increasingly important role to global affairs and willing to allow access to high technology in various fields including nuclear cooperation.

In New York, the Indian prime minister said he would meet US President George W Bush, Pak President Pervez Musharraf, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Hu Jintao and an array of other prominent world leaders besides addressing the UN general assembly.

Singh's meeting with Bush will serve as an opportunity to be a follow-up discussion of the meeting between them in Washington this July when India and the United States signed a landmark deal to cooperate in civilian nuclear energy sector.

The deal virtually ended India's nuclear apartheid status imposed following the 1998 testing of nuclear devices and paved the way for similar cooperation between India and other Western countries.

Last week, at the European Union and India summit here, British Prime Minister and current EU Council President Tony Blair invited India to join Europe's International Thermonuclear Reactor programme.

The spotlight, of course, would be on Singh's meeting with Musharraf on September 14, their second in five months. The two leaders had met in Delhi in April when the Pakistan president had come here to watch a one-day cricket match between India and Pakistan.