MOSCOW, Aug 28: Russia and the United States will sign a deal on peaceful nuclear cooperation by the end of the year, said Nikolai Spassky, the deputy head of Rosatom, Russia’s nuclear energy agency on Tuesday.

Spassky’s comments follow earlier delays to an agreement, which had been expected just before US President George W Bush and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin met last July.

“An agreement on cooperation between Russia and United States in the field of nuclear energy should be signed by the end of this year,” Spassky said.

“We expect that in the course of the autumn this document will be signed. Overall, it will allow us to continue and develop our cooperation from a completely new standpoint,” Spassky said at a conference of arms control experts in Moscow.

Known as the 123 agreement, so called because it falls under section 123 of the Atomic Energy Act, a new agreement is critical to the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, or GNEP, which the US and Russia have discussed for more than a year.

This partnership is seen as a way to expand peaceful nuclear energy development and reduce proliferation risks.—Reuters