NEW DELHI: The United States is taking the final steps to remove obstacles for a civil nuclear partnership between American and Indian companies, outgoing US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan announced on Monday.
The move seeks to provide fresh momentum to the landmark nuclear deal between the two nations, which ended India's nuclear isolation. The US plans to remove Indian entities, including the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research and the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, from its restricted list to boost nuclear power and high-tech cooperation.
Sullivan who is on a farewell visit to India met with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval to discuss the entire gamut of the bilateral relationship, especially high-tech cooperation.
India’s nuclear liability law, which also holds the supplier of plants — rather than just the operator — accountable for a nuclear accident, has been a stumbling block between the two countries. The US has long opposed this approach, which they say deviates from the global norm of holding the operator liable.
India and the US unveiled an ambitious plan to cooperate in civil nuclear energy in July 2005, following a meeting between then-Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and US President George W Bush. The India-US civil nuclear agreement was signed in 2008.
Although the transformative deal significantly enhanced overall bilateral engagement including technological cooperation besides ending India’s isolation in the arena, tangible progress in the civil nuclear energy sector remained elusive between the two countries, primarily due to the liability law and some of the key entities being in the restrictive list.
“Although former President Bush and former Prime Minister Singh laid out a vision of civil nuclear cooperation nearly 20 years ago, we have yet to fully realise it,” Sullivan said in an address at the IIT-Delhi where he focused on India-US technology cooperation.
He stated that the Biden administration has determined it is time to take the next major step in "cementing" this partnership.
“So today I can announce that the United States is now finalising the necessary steps to remove long-standing regulations that have prevented civil nuclear cooperation between India's leading nuclear entities and US companies," Sullivan said. “The formal paperwork will be done soon, but this will be an opportunity to turn the page on some of the frictions of the past and create opportunities for entities that have been on restricted lists in the US to come off those lists and enter into deep cooperation with the US,” he said.
This will further facilitate the high-technology cooperation between the two countries. Sullivan also announced that India-US commercial and civil space partnership is set to "lift off" with President Biden signing certain papers. This move, he said, will help bolster cooperation in areas of missile technology. In the address, Sullivan also slammed China for its "predatory industrial strategies" in certain critical sectors including in chip manufacturing, clean energy and other emerging technologies.
After the meeting with him, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar acknowledged Sullivan's "personal contribution" in strengthening the India-US partnership over the past four years.
"Continued our ongoing discussions on deepening bilateral, regional and global cooperation. Valued the openness of our conversations in the last four years. Appreciated his personal contribution to forging a closer and stronger India-US partnership," he wrote in a post on X.
