28 November 2009
Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago
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Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Dr. Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India, made the following statements following their bilateral meeting at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Trinidad and Tobago:
Prime Minister Harper:
“Thank you for coming everybody. When I was in India, Prime Minister Singh and I discussed a number of items, including a nuclear cooperation agreement that Canada and India had been negotiating, that was very close to completion. Prime Minister Singh and I agreed that it should be brought to a conclusion very rapidly.
“Our officials have met, and thanks to Prime Minister Singh's leadership, we have now got the agreement between the countries. This is a tremendous development, just a tremendous opportunity for both countries. Canada is a supplier obviously, an integrated supplier in the nuclear energy field. India has an expanding economy with great energy needs.
“We will be taking a little bit of time to complete the normal legal text and ratification processes, but this is a tremendous economic step forward and a tremendous step forward in our relations.
“So I thank you very much, Prime Minister Singh.”
Prime Minister Singh:
“Prime Minister Stephen Harper has just now completed a most successful visit to our country.
“During our interactions, we discussed ways and means of expanding the content of our relationship to widen it and to deepen it every possible way. And among the things that had been hanging for some time was the desire of both our countries to negotiate an international civil nuclear power agreement. India's needs for nuclear energy are enormous, just as we need a lot more energy to make a success of our developing presence.
“And Prime Minister Harper has proved to be absolutely true to his word. He told me that he would have this matter looked into. [That this] exercise has been completed in a short period of eight to ten days is a tribute to Prime Minister Harper's great leadership and the way the civil service functions in Canada.
“It speaks extremely well of the development of our relations. India and Canada have been partners in development. Ever since India became independent, we have had a large community of Indian origin in Canada, so we have all these bonds of friendship, which Prime Minister Stephen Harper and I are committed to further develop in every possible way.
“So the negotiation of this agreement, this civil nuclear cooperation agreement is a very important step forward, a milestone for the development of our relations and I thank Prime Minister from the core of my heart for having expedited this process beyond my expectations.”
