India and Canada have identified energy cooperation, particularly exports of Canadian oil and natural gas as well as renewable energy cooperation, as an area with enormous potential, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Tuesday.
Addressing the media after a meeting with the visiting Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Singh said a ministerial-level energy dialogue will supplement the strategic dialogue and promote specific projects.
“We also welcomed the recent progress made towards concluding the modalities for the effective operationalisation of the agreement on civil nuclear energy cooperation that we had signed in 2010,” the Prime Minister said.
Singh added that the memorandum of understanding signed between DRDO and York University was a “`welcome foray into bilateral defence technology cooperation.”
Stating that India-Canada economic cooperation was below its potential, the Prime Minister said that the establishment of a bilateral CEOs forum and the commitment to a structured dialogue between the commerce ministers of the two countries, will help trade and economic interaction.
“We resolved to conclude negotiations for a comprehensive economic partnership agreement within the next year,” Singh said.
The two leaders also decided to take forward and strengthen the bilateral dialogue in the energy sector by elevating the discussions to the ministerial level, which will be led by the Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, on the Indian side and the Minister of Natural Resources on the Canadian side, and to explore the possibility of a memorandum of understanding in the field of oil and gas.
The two Prime Ministers endorsed the decision to start a financial sector policy dialogue to facilitate mutual understanding of developments in the financial sectors of the two countries and to discuss and coordinate positions on developments in the global fora.