India, Canada ink energy pact; to sign civil nuclear agreement

Aiming to give a major push to their ties, India and Canada signed an energy pact and decided to ink a civil nuclear agreement and undertake a feasibility study for a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA).

Aiming to give a major push to their ties, India and Canada on Tuesday signed an energy pact and decided to ink a civil nuclear agreement and undertake a feasibility study for a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA).

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Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said there were vast opportunities in the economic field and invited Canadian investments in India in areas like high technology and infrastructure.

During his hour-long talks, Singh discussed with his Canadian counterpart Stephen Harper the entire gamut of bilateral ties and situation in the region, particularly Pakistan and Afghanistan.

After the talks, the two sides signed an MoU in the field of energy and an MoU for setting up a Joint Study Group for conducting feasibility study for CEPA.

Singh and Harper also said they looked forward to firming up a civil nuclear agreement, which would be significant considering that Canada is the largest exporter of Uranium and India desperately needs the fuel to increase its nuclear power generation.

"The Memorandum of Understanding we have signed on Energy will facilitate greater cooperation in this wide area," Singh said at a joint press conference with Harper.