Thirty-eight years after the “Buddha smiled”, Canada has agreed to supply uranium and nuclear reactors to India, once again.
Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who is in New Delhi on a visit, said this area presented an important economic opportunity for his country.
The two nations had signed a civilian nuclear deal earlier, but a number of issues, including Canada’s insistence on rigorous checks on the nuclear material it would supply, had remained unresolved. A new arrangement overcomes this problem.
It is now up to India to make the best use of this opportunity. Along with Australia, Canada can be a reliable supplier of nuclear material to India. All that we need to do is to quickly overcome domestic barriers to N-plant construction and start generating the much-needed power to alleviate the country’s looming energy crisis. There is no time to be lost.
