France will support India during the forthcoming meeting of the board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency convened to consult and ratify India-specific safeguards agreement for the Indo-US nuclear deal.
Member of Indian Atomic Energy Commission Dr M R Srinivasan on Tuesday told PTI from Ooty that he was assured by the Director of External Relations of French Atomic Energy Agency Caron Olivera that France will back India at IAEA and the Nulcear Suppliers Group.
Olivera is also part of the board of governors of the IAEA.
Srinivasan had met the French diplomat during an international meeting on 'Plutonium and Security' held near Paris last week.
Srinisavan said he also met High Commissioner of French Atomic Energy Commission Bernard Bigot during the meeting and both Bigot and Olivera said they were all waiting for India to speed up the process so that they could support India at both the IAEA board as well as the subsequent meeting of the 45-member NSG to facilitate India's entry into world nuclear commerce.
The international meet was attended by several specialists in plutonium and even countries like Russia, Japan are keen to support to India, he said.
France, which has already given the green signal to build EPR 1650 MW nuclear power plant early this month, is looking forward to the Indo-US deal to be completed as soon as possible so that they could go ahead with their cooperation with India, Srinivasan said.
France and India had almost entered into an agreement, but did not finalise it as they had to wait for the Indo-US deal to be completed.