India-US Agrees to Build American Nuclear Power Plants in India

Guwahati: India and The United States on Wednesday agreed to build six American nuclear power plants in India with a boost to bilateral civil nuclear energy cooperation.

In a joint statement issued by the two countries at the conclusion of the 9th round of India-US Strategic Security Dialogue. The programme was co-chaired by Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale and Andrea Thompson, the US under secretary of state for arms control and international security.

The statement issued by the two countries stated that they committed to strengthen bilateral security and civil nuclear cooperation including the establishment of six U.S nuclear power plants in India.

A historic agreement was signed by India and the US to cooperate in civil nuclear energy sector in October 2008 which gave a fillip to bilateral ties that have been on an upswing since.

It has further been mentioned in the statement that a major aspect of the deal was the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) that gave a special waiver to India enabling it to sign cooperation agreements with a dozen countries.

India signed civil nuclear cooperation agreements post-waiver with the US, France, Russia, Canada, Argentina, Australia, Srilanka, the UK, Japan, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Kazakhstan and South Korea.

The United States also reaffirmed its strong support to India's early membership on Wednesday in the 48 member NSG. Notably, China has blocked India's pending membership to the elite grouping that seeks to prevent proliferation of nuclear weapons.

The two countries also exchanged views on a wide range of global security and non-proliferation challenges and reaffirmed their commitment to work together. The views have been exchanged to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their delivery systems to deny access to such weapons by terrorists and non-state actors.

Indra Mani Pandey, India's additional secretary for disarmament and international security affairs and Yleem D.S. Poblete, US assistant secretary of state for arms control, verification and compliance co-chaired the third round of India-US Space Dialogue on March 12.

The two delegations also discussed their respective national space priorities and opportunities for cooperation bilaterally and in multilateral fora and also discussed trends in space threats.

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