India will participate in nuclear security summit in Korea: Pratibha

President Pratibha Patil has expressed confidence that the India-South Korea Agreement on Cooperation in the Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy, signed during her just-concluded state visit to Korea, would enable the two countries to cooperate in this area.

Talking to journalists on-board the special flight bringing her back home from her two-nation visit to Korea and Mongolia, she said on Saturday that “the nuclear security initiative conference will be taking place in Korea [next year] and India will participate.”

The initiative aims at supporting all measures essential for the global security architecture, especially those that help prevent nuclear materials from reaching the hands of terrorists. Last year in April, U.S. President Barack Obama hosted the Nuclear Security Summit attended by 47 nations.

Ms. Patil was pleased to note that both in Seoul and Ulaanbaater there was a “clear desire” to “expand and deepen relations with India.” In her meetings with the Presidents of the two countries and other leaders she “fully reciprocated these sentiments and indicated that we wanted to take our Strategic Partnership with the Republic of Korea and our Comprehensive Partnership with Mongolia to a higher trajectory.”

In Korea, she told President Lee Myung-bak that India looked forward to launching Korean satellites. She also expressed the desire to upgrade the existing bilateral Comprehensive Economic Partnership, while seeking greater market access for Indian goods, especially pharmaceuticals and IT-enabled services as well as enhanced Korean investment in India. The Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade will visit India later this year, she told journalists.