South Africa will support Indo-US N deal at NSG : Mbeki

Pretoria, Oct 2 (UNI) South Africa today pledged support to India at the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) when the Indo-US nuclear deal came up before it for discussion while the two countries signed a Declaration for further strengening cooperation in various sectors including counter-terrorism, UN reforms and bilateral trade.

''We have no problem with that. When the matter come up (at the NSG), we will support that,'' South African President Thabo Mbeki said at a joint press conference alongwith Prime Minister Manmohan Singh after a marathon session of discussions at the Union Buildings.

South Africa also supported India's Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT), currently under discussion at the UN.

The two countries also agreed to strengthen cooperation in the defence sector, including possibility of joint research and development (R&D).

President Mbeki also categorically announced support for India's pan-African-e-Network which President A P J Abdul Kalam had initiated during his visit to South Africa in 2004.

The 25-point 'Tshwane' Declaration aims at taking bilateral ties to the level of a ''strategic partnership'', pledges to treble trade turnover to 12 billion dollars by 2010 and promises to work together for total eradication of international terrorism.

Setting a target of 12 billion dollar bilateral trade by 2010, the two countries also decided to intensify cooperation in untapped sectors like energy, information technology and infrastructure to achieve this ambitious goal.

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