By Aroonim Bhuyan
New Delhi, January 7. Ahead of the change of guard at the White House later this month, the US has announced that it will remove all remaining hurdles in the 2005 civilian nuclear deal that prevented cooperation between American and Indian entities.
“Although former (US) President (George) Bush and former Prime Minister (Manmohan) Singh laid out a vision of civil-nuclear cooperation 20 years ago, we have yet to fully realise it,” US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said during a public address at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Delhi on January 6.
“But as we work to build clean energy technologies, to enable growth in artificial intelligence, and to help US and Indian energy companies unlock their innovation potential, the Biden administration determined it was time to take the next major step in cementing this partnership,” Sullivan said. “So today I can announce that the United States is now finalising the necessary steps to remove longstanding regulations that have prevented civil nuclear cooperation between India’s leading nuclear entities and US companies.”
According to a statement issued by the External Affairs Ministry following a meeting between Sullivan and his Indian counterpart on Monday, US will finalise necessary steps to delist Indian nuclear entities, which will promote civil nuclear cooperation and resilient clean energy supply chains.
“US NSA Jake Sullivan briefed the Indian side on the updates brought out by the (US President Joe) Biden administration to US missile export control policies under the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) that will boost US commercial space cooperation with India,” the statement reads. “Reflecting the progress the United States and India have made – and will continue to make – as strategic partners and countries with a shared commitment to peaceful nuclear cooperation, NSA Sullivan announced US efforts to finalise necessary steps to delist Indian nuclear entities, which will promote civil nuclear cooperation and resilient clean energy supply chains.”
The framework for this agreement was a July 18, 2005, joint statement by then Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and then US President George Bush, under which India agreed to separate its civil and military nuclear facilities and to place all its civil nuclear facilities under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards and, in exchange, the US agreed to work toward full civil nuclear cooperation with India.
This US-India deal took more than three years to come to fruition as it had to go through several complex stages, including amendment of US domestic law, especially the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, a civil-military nuclear Separation Plan in India, an India-IAEA safeguards (inspections) agreement and the grant of an exemption for India by the Nuclear Suppliers Group, an export-control cartel that had been formed mainly in response to India’s first nuclear test in 1974.
According to the External Affairs Ministry statement, during their meeting on Monday, the Doval and Sullivan reviewed the ongoing progress in the high-level dialogue between India and the US, including in diverse fields such as defence, cyber and maritime security.
“Following the launch of the India-US Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies (iCET) by Prime Minister Modi and President Joseph Biden on the sidelines of the Quad Summit in Tokyo on May 24, 2022, the two NSAs have driven concrete initiatives between the two countries across a range of areas including Artificial Intelligence (AI), quantum computing, semiconductors, telecommunications, defence and space,” the statement reads.
During the course of his visit to New Delhi, Sullivan also called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. During the meeting Modi and Sullivan “positively assessed the significant advancement in the India-US Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership over the last four years, especially in the key areas of technology, defence, space, civil nuclear, clean energy, semiconductors, and AI”, according to a separate statement issued by the External Affairs Ministry.
“Recalling his various meetings with President Biden, including during his visit to the US in September 2024 for the Quad Leaders’ Summit, PM appreciated President Biden’s contributions towards strengthening of the India-US Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership, which leaves an enduring legacy,” the statement reads.
