India,UK agree to finalise bilateral Civil Nuclear energy pact

New Delhi, Jan 21 (UNI) India and the United Kingdom today agreed to expeditiously work towards a bilateral agreement for civilian nuclear energy cooperation and a new dialogue to check terrorist financing while Britain reaffirmed support for India's membership of the UN Security Council (UNSC) and the Financial Action Task Force.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who held talks here today as part of the Fourth India-UK Summit, strongly emphasised the potential of civil nuclear energy to be a safe, sustainable and non-polluting source of energy which could make a significant contribution to meeting the global challenge of achieving energy security, sustainable development, economic growth, and limiting climate change.

The UK supported the India-US civil nuclear co-operation initiative with all its elements, including an appropriate India specific exemption to the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) Guidelines.

''As two countries with advanced nuclear technology, India and the UK agree to promote co-operation in civil nuclear energy and will work expeditiously towards a bilateral agreement for this purpose, in line with their strong commitment to non-proliferation,'' a Joint statement issued after the talks said.

The Joint statement, signed by the two Prime Ministers after their talks, lasting nearly two hours, underlined the importance of joint international efforts in countering terrorism.

They agreed to intensify mutual exchange of views, experiences and practical cooperation in the fight against terrorism, both through bilateral channels and in multilateral forums.

It was agreed to strengthen cooperation through the Indo-UK Joint Working Group on Counter-Terrorism.

While multilaterally, the two countries expressed commitment to pursuing the agreement on the Comprehensive Convention against International Terrorism, bilaterally, both countries agreed to build on existing co-operation including in the protection of critical national infrastructure, mass transit systems and the security of major sporting events/UK, and expand it further in the fields of Civil Aviation security and crisis management.

It was also agreed to establish a new bilateral dialogue on Terrorist Financing with britain reafirming its support for India's full membership of the Financial Action Task Force.

MORE UNI RB MSJ RK2030