India signs pact with Kazakhstan for uranium supply

New Delhi, Jan 24 (PTI) India 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.

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 here.

India's 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 Indian Space Research
organisation (ISRO) and Kazakh Space Agency for space
cooperation. ONGC Mittal Energy Limited also signed
and agreement with state-run KazMunaiGas.