Merkel says India-Germany nuclear energy cooperation has potential

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Tuesday that India and Germany could do a lot together on peaceful uses of nuclear energy - if New Delhi finalizes a landmark civilian nuclear energy deal with the United States. Merkel told reporters she had raised the issue with India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during talks in the Indian capital, New Delhi. The India-US deal has run into trouble, with communist political allies of Singh's government opposing the accord, posing a threat to its survival. The deal would reverse three decades of American anti-proliferation policy by allowing the US to send nuclear fuel and technology to India - which has been cut off from the global atomic trade by its refusal to sign nonproliferation treaties and its testing of nuclear weapons.