India looking to get uranium from SA

Having obtained a waiver at the Nuclear Suppliers' Group and with South Africa and Brazil already welcoming India's acceptance of the relevant guidelines regulating the issue, India is exploring the possibility of accessing uranium from South Africa.

"We are beginning to consider how to go about acquiring uranium from South Africa. In the long term, it will be in our interest to access uranium directly from South Africa," Indian High Commissioner to South Africa Virender Gupta said while briefing the Indian media on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's bilateral meeting with South African President Jacob Zuma in Pretoria on Tuesday.

Gupta said he did not see any difficulty in obtaining uranium from South Africa as India had signed civil nuclear agreement and had got a waiver from the NSG. South Africa is a member of NSG.

Earlier, the IBSA leaders -- Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Brazilian President Dimla Rousseff, and South African President Jacob Zuma -- reaffirmed their commitment to the goal of the complete elimination of all nuclear weapons within a specified timeframe, in a comprehensive, universal, non-discriminatory, verifiable and irreversible manner.

The leaders also renewed their support for efforts related to the disarmament and non-proliferation of other weapons of mass destruction, with a view to expediting their elimination.

Brazil and South Africa welcomed India's engagement with, and interest in, the participation in the relevant international multilateral export control regimes and utilisation of their guidelines.