Greece non-committal on supporting India at NSG

New Delhi, Jan 11 (UNI) Greece today refrained from committing support to India at the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) when the Indo-US Civilian Nuclear agreement comes up but said it was not averse to use of nuclear energy for developmental purposses provided countries adhered to safeguards.

Prime Minister of Greece, Kostas Karamanlis, said at a press conference here that his country was not against peaceful uses of nuclear energy if it was in close cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

''I don't see there should be a problem,'' he added.

He was addressing the press conference jointly with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh after talks here this evening. The two Prime Ministers led their respective countries at the talks covering bilateral, regional and international issues.

Replying to a question on whether the issue came up during the discussions, Dr Singh said he had explained to the Greek Prime Minister the necessity for India to go in for nuclear energy for developmental purposes.

Mr Karamanalis understood the imperatives for India to have the nuclear energy for civilian use, Dr Singh said.

The two Prime Ministers said they had decided to surpass the earlier fixed target of one billion Euros bilateral trade by 2010. The target had been set by during the visit of the then President A P J Abdul Kalam to Greece in April 2007.

''We agreed to work together to accelerate the tempo to exceed that target by expanding two-way trade,'' Dr Singh said.

Bilateral trade is on a growth path. Indian exports to Greek in 2006-2007 amounted to 672.51 million US dollars while imports from Greece were 209.66 million dollars. However, there is still considerable potential for two-way trade to grow.

During the visit of President Kalam to Greece in April 2007, a target of one billion US dollars by 2010 was set.

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