01-24-2009, 06:26 PM
<b>India signs pact with Kazakhstan for uranium supply</b>
<b>NEW DELHI : India on Saturday signed a civil nuclear pact with Kazakhstan under which the uranium-rich Central Asian country will supply much-needed fuel to atomic plants in the country.</b>
India also signed four other pacts, including an Extradition Treaty, in the presence of President Pratibha Patil and her Kazakh counterpart Nursultan Nazarbayev.
Patil oversaw the proceedings of inking of the four pacts as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was indisposed.
Kazakhstan will provide uranium and related products under the Memorandum of Understanding between Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) and KazAtomProm. The MoU was signed by NPCIL CMD S K Jain and KazAtomProm President Moukhtar Dzhakishev.
The MoU also opens up possibilities of joint exploration of uranium in Kazakhstan, which has the world's second largest uranium reserves, and India building atomic power plants in the Central Asian country.
"These agreements are very important for the stature of our bilateral relations," Nazarbayev told reporters in the capital.
External affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee, who led the delegation level talks in absence of Singh, inked the Extradition Treaty with his Kazakh counterpart Marat Tazhin.
Minister of state of commerce Jairam Ramesh and Kazakh minister of trade and industry Vladimir Shkolnik signed the protocol on the accession of Kazakhstan to the World Trade Organisation.
An MoU was signed between ISRO and Kazakh Space Agency for space cooperation. ONGC Mittal Energy Limited also signed and agreement with state-run KazMunaiGas
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