The head of India's ruling Congress party, Sonia Gandhi, has thrown her weight behind Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for a nuclear accord with the United States, a deal opposed by his government's key Left supporters, the Press Trust of India (PTI) reported Saturday.
"India and the U.S. have signed a historic 123 agreement that lifts the decades-old embargo against nuclear trade with India. This will allow India to expand its energy sector to meet the growing demands of our economic growth and put an end to the power shortages that we are all familiar with," she said.
"We congratulate Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his team of able negotiators, who have hammered a treaty that satisfies all the conditions laid out before parliament and brought home an agreement that is in the long-term interest of India," said Gandhi in a letter to her party leaders, the PTI reported.
She said the Left, whose support is crucial for the survival of Singh's government, opposition parties and members of ruling alliance have been "kept informed" about the nuclear deal.
"We have negotiated with America keeping our national interests in the forefront and India's nuclear defense program has been in no way undermined," the PTI quoted her as saying in her letter published in the latest issue of a Congress journal.
Source: Xinhua
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