Obama submits to Congress nuclear energy cooperation deal with China

President Xi Jinping meets with his US counterpart Barack Obama on the sidelines of the Nuclear Security Summit in The Hague on March 24, 2014. [Photo/Agencies]

WASHINGTON -- US President Barack Obama on Tuesday submitted to Congress a proposed 30-year agreement on cooperating with China in peaceful uses of nuclear energy.

"In my judgement, it meets all applicable statutory requirements and will advance the nonproliferation and other foreign policy interests of the United States," Obama said in a message to Congress issued by the White House.

The agreement, which permits transfer of material, equipment ( including reactors), components, information and technology for nuclear research and nuclear power production, "provides a comprehensive framework for peaceful nuclear cooperation with China based on a mutual commitment to nuclear nonproliferation," Obama said.

The agreement "will promote, and will not constitute an unreasonable risk to, the common defense and security," he said, urging Congress to give it "favorable consideration."

Obama noted that China has since the 1980s become a party to several nonproliferation treaties and conventions and "worked to bring its domestic export control authorities in line with international standards."

China and the US have cooperated on peaceful uses of nuclear energy in the past decades, since the signing of an agreement for this cooperation in 1985, which is to expire at the end of 2015.