SPIEGEL: Nevertheless, there is great disharmony within your own country over the planned nuclear deal with the United States, which will allow international monitoring of India’s civil nuclear power stations in exchange for technological know-how. Your own coalition partners, the Left Front, vehemently oppose the Indian-US nuclear deal. Is it all but dead?

Singh: I take your point, but I am still of the opinion that we will reach a consensus soon. The Indian-US nuclear deal will considerably improve and consolidate India’s energy supply. And what is good for India is good for the world.

SPIEGEL: Many countries would beg to differ. India, a nuclear power, has consistently refused to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. In a phone call to US President George W. Bush last year, Chancellor Merkel herself criticised the Indian-US nuclear deal.

Singh: Chancellor Merkel, who has herself campaigned intensively for renewable energy since the last G-8 summit, has no reason to worry. Yes, we do have an ambitious domestic nuclear power programme and want to raise the proportion of nuclear power in the overall energy mix. But it is also well established that we want to look at all available fuel options and forms of sustainable and environment-friendly energy. International cooperation can play an important role in that endeavor. Take the German-Indian Energy Forum, for example. German companies are already supplying equipment for the Indian power sector, and we are already working together on energy efficiency, clean coal technology and renewables. For the business delegation accompanying the chancellor to India, the trip will not be in vain.

... contd.