Canada to resume selling nuclear items to New Delhi

Canada said it would resume nuclear cooperation with India, recognizing New Delhi's attempts to secure its nuclear power program and reversing a long-standing ban on nuclear sales to India.

Canada stopped supplying India with nuclear materials after Canadian plutonium was used in the first nuclear device exploded by India in 1974, and Ottawa maintained the sanctions after India and Pakistan began their tit-for-tat testing of nuclear weapons in 1998.

Foreign Minister Pierre Pettigrew and Indian External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh signed an agreement on Monday in Ottawa that would allow Canada to supply nuclear-related, dual-use items to Indian civilian nuclear facilities under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards.

Pettigrew said the dual-use items would be kept under strict international safeguards to make sure they were not used in India's military weapons program.

Though "dual-use"' items can be used for military purposes, Pettigrew's office insisted the materials would be for peaceful energy means.