By IANS
Seoul : India Monday sought South Korea’s support in the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group and agreed to push negotiations between the two countries to conclude a comprehensive economic partnership deal this year.
Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee discussed with Song Min-soon, South Korea’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, a wide array of bilateral and regional issues, including the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula and intensification of trade and investment between the two countries.
Mukherjee, who began his three-day visit to Seoul Sunday, also discussed the India-US civil nuclear deal and sought Seoul’s support for the agreement which will re-open doors of global civil nuclear commerce after a hiatus of three decades.
Seoul’s response is not known, but it has agreed to look at the India-US nuclear agreement in detail and will make up its mind after New Delhi completes its safeguards negotiations with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Last week, Chun Yung-Woo, Seoul’s chief negotiator to six-party talks on terminating North Korea’s controversial nuclear programme, had expressed apprehensions that making an exception for India may encourage North Korea, that defiantly conducted a nuclear test last year, to ask for similar concessions and endanger regional security.
Expanding trade and economic ties, however, topped the agenda of talks between the two ministers.
“They expressed satisfaction on the meaningful progress made in negotiations on the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) and reiterated their desire to conclude the negotiations by the end of 2007,” said a joint press statement after the talks.
The two countries also agreed to increase bilateral trade from $7.1 billion to $10 billion before 2008.
“The two ministers agreed that strong and diversified economic cooperation lies at the core of the partnership, and agreed to work together to improve the environment for enlarged trade and investment,” said the statement after the ministers co-chaired the 5th meeting of the joint commmission.
Both sides also decided to give a push to implementing South Korean steel-maker POSCO’s project in India’s eastern state of Orissa, which at $12 billion is the largest foreign investment in India.
South Korea participated as an observer in the summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SARC) held in April this year.
Mukherjee returns home Tuesday after visiting Thailand and South Korea.