India and Canada sign uranium supply deal

Agencies/OttawaCanada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced a breakthrough deal yesterday to supply uranium to India, putting behind decades of discord over India’s surreptitious use of Canadian technologies to build nuclear bombs. The supply agreement was signed in Ottawa during a visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the first Indian leader to visit Canada in 42 years. Few details of the C$350mn deal were immediately available, except that it would cover five years. The uranium is to be sourced from the northern Saskatchewan mines of Cameco, the world’s third-largest uranium producer, accountable for 14% of world production. It currently exports about C$1bn worth of uranium annually. Harper said a nuclear co-operation agreement concluded in 2012 laid the groundwork for the two Commonwealth nations “to turn the page on what had been in our judgement an unnecessarily frosty relationship for too along.” The pact allows Canadian companies to export nuclear materials for peaceful uses, in accordance with Canada’s nuclear non-proliferation policy. India, which has tense relations with Pakistan, had been subject to a global embargo since 1974 when it first staged an atomic weapons test. It used plutonium from a Canadian reactor to start developing its nuclear arms programme in the early 1970s. Modi told a joint press conference with Harper the uranium procurement deal marks “a new era of bilateral co-operation (and)... trust and confidence in India.” “This gives the energy to our relations,” he said. “Clean energy is our global responsibility to humanity. Uranium is must to my mission of clean energy. This deal will help us fulfil our mission,” Modi said.The two leaders also pledged a renewed push to get stalled free trade talks back on track. Bilateral trade is small - only C$6.3bn in 2014, according to Canadian government figures. “Both Mr Modi and I believe it could be worth much more,” Harper said. “Canada has what India needs and vice versa.” However, “there are many issues to be resolved,” he added. India also announced visa on arrival for Canadians.Modi said his government wants to promote people-to-people contacts between the two countries. Canadians can apply online and will be eligible for visas for 10 years.Apart from this, a number of agreements were signed following talks between the two leaders.These are in the areas of civil aviation and space, skill development and higher education.In his remarks, Harper said: “Your visit indicates the strong friendship between Canada and India. This is a growing relationship. Trade potential between our countries is enormous.”Modi’s visit to Canada comes after stops in France and Germany. He is seeking to attract investors as he tries to rewrite India’s reputation as a tricky place to do business, beset by bureaucracy, corruption and a stringent tax regime. In Canada, Modi is expected to make stops in Toronto, where he is scheduled to give a keynote speech at a rock star-like event, and in Vancouver. Nearly 1.2mn Canadians trace their roots to India. South Asians are the largest visible minority in Canada. Modi is also expected to face protesters who accuse him having encouraged deadly communal riots in 2002 in Gujarat, which he governed for over a decade.