Namibia, India set to hold nuclear energy talks: official

A date will soon be set for nuclear energy talks between Namibia and India, Namibia's information minister said Wednesday.

Namibia and India have a 2009 agreement on the supply of uranium to be used on nuclear energy, which is not implemented because India is not a signatory to the United Nations Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

India declined to sign the 1970 treaty in 1995.

The decision to engage India, according to information minister Tjekero Tweya, was made Tuesday by the Cabinet.

Tweya emphasized that Namibia will only export uranium to India for use in a friendly manner.

This announcement comes four months after Indian President Pranab Mukherjee met his Namibian counterpart Hage Geingob in Windhoek on June 16.

During the meeting, Geingob promised Mukherjee that he would look into legal ways by which Namibia can supply uranium to India.

According to Tweya, the Cabinet asked the mines ministry to come up with suitable dates for convening a meeting with India's technical team on how to operationalize the agreement.

It was also agreed during Mukherjee's visit that India will have to send technical atomic energy experts to help with issues affecting uranium exports.

The move to have Indian atomic energy experts was necessitated by the fact that Namibia is a signatory to the African Union members that are against dealing with non-Nuclear Proliferation Treaty signatories.

Tweya did not say whether these experts were sent to Namibia. Endit