India, US to work to prevent proliferation of weapons of mass destruction

India and US have reaffirmed their commitment to work together to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their delivery systems and to deny access to such weapons by terrorists and non-state actors.

The two sides exchanged views on a wide range of global security and non-proliferation challenges during the ninth round of the India-US Strategic Security Dialogue held in Washington on Wednesday.

The Indian delegation was led by Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale while the US delegation was led by Andrea Thompson, Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security.

"The two sides reaffirmed their commitment to work together to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their delivery systems and to deny access to such weapons by terrorists and non-state actors," an External Affairs Ministry statement said.

It said the two sides committed to strengthen bilateral security and civil nuclear cooperation, including the establishment of six US nuclear power plants in India.

The US reaffirmed its strong support of India's early membership in the Nuclear Suppliers Group.

Earlier, on Tuesday, Indra Mani Pandey, 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 the India-US Space Dialogue, where they discussed trends in space threats, respective national space priorities and opportunities for cooperation bilaterally and in multilateral fora.

--IANS

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