India and France will sign a nuclear cooperation agreement next week, an aide to French President Nicolas Sarkozy said under the condition that he would not be identified.
The agreement may be signed when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh meets Sarkozy in Paris on September 30, or two or three days later if time is needed to complete some details, the aide said in the French capital today.
India plans to acquire nuclear equipment worth $14 billion next year, Shreyans Kumar Jain, chairman of state-run monopoly Nuclear Power Corp., said on September 8.
Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon said earlier this month the two countries were close to an agreement that could be signed during the Paris meeting. Singh will discuss trade, investment, defence, civil nuclear cooperation and high technology with Sarkozy during his visit to France.
French companies, including Thales SA and Dassault Aviation SA, may win a contract with India to upgrade 51 Mirage combat jets in the first months of 2009, a diplomat also told reporters.
The companies, which have completed the technical part of the talks with India, still need to discuss the value of the contract, the diplomat said.