N-deal needed for more energy:Pranab

Kolkata, Jul 27 (UNI) Defending the UPA Government's stand on the Indo-US civil Nuclear Deal, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee today said it was needed for getting more energy and creating scopes for nuclear research and not stockpiling weapons.

''We have enough arsenal in our possession and a strong force to defend the country. So we do not need to sign the deal to stock weapons. It has much larger implications,'' he said speaking at a function on the occasion of Ramakrishna Mission Seva Pratisthan's platinum jubilee celebrations.

''Nuclear energy is the energy of the next generation and we want our people to enjoy it,'' he said.

Mr Mukherjee also asserted that the deal would end the 34-year-old nuclear isolation of India since the first nuclear test at Pokhran in 1974 and help resume research and development, which our scientists and technologists had been denied of for long.

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