Indian PM offers nuclear assurance to US

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, seeking US support for his country’s civil nuclear programme, assured the US Congress today that India will not spread sensitive technologies.

Singh addressed a joint meeting of Congress – an honour bestowed only on the closest of US allies – one day after US President George W. Bush said he would push for a reversal of US policy so Washington can help India’s nuclear power programme.

Any such change in policy would require congressional support.

“The field of civil nuclear energy is a vital area for cooperation between our two countries,” Singh said in prepared remarks, emphasising that India has “never been, and will never be, a source of proliferation of sensistive technologies.”