Russia urges India to join NPT for coop

Moscow, Aug 28: Russia today urged India to first join the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT) to enable it to further expand cooperation with New Delhi in the nuclear sphere.

''As long as India remains under the restrictions of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), cooperation will be impossible,'' the deputy chief of Russian Atomic Energy Agency (Rosatom) Nikolai Spassky said.

''It would be ideal, if India joined the nuclear arms non-proliferation treaty as a non-nuclear state, but it has been reluctant to do so,'' Itar-Tass news agency quoted Spassky as saying.

He said he believed ''Within the space of realistic policies a special regime for India would be the optimal solution.'' UNI