Canada's Green Party voices concerns over uranium deal with India

Ottawa, April 17: Canada's Green Party has expressed serious concern over the country's uranium deal with India.

Under the deal, which was signed here with the witness of visiting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Canadian counterpart Steven Harper on Wednesday, India will import 3,000 tones of uranium from Canada in the coming five years.

Elizabeth May, leader of the Green Party of Canada on Thursday said, "Canada 's trade in nuclear materials with India is a direct violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NNPT)," Xinhua reported.

Green Party's Indigenous Affairs Critic Lorraine Rekmans said: "Canadians support peace and democracy. Selling uranium to India could cause us to violate the NNPT if India uses it to manufacture weapons, and make us part of the global insecurity problem."

Rekmans urged Canada to promote peace and security abroad. "In the upcoming review of the NNPT on April 29, we must work with our allies to bring all stakeholder nations into an improved NNPT."

India has refused to join the NNPT since it was created in 1970. Canada banned all exports of nuclear materials to India in 1974 after India used a CANDU research reactor to develop its first experimental nuclear weapon.

The export ban was lifted with the Canada-India Nuclear Cooperation Agreement in 2013, when Canadian International Trade Minister Lawrence Cannon said "India has been in the penalty box long enough."

The 2013 agreement allows Canadian firms to export nuclear materials, equipment and technology to India.

IANS