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Civil Nuclear Deal
In a significant move, the US on Wednesday removed restrictions on three Indian nuclear entities, over a week after NSA Jake Sullivan announced that Washington was finalising steps to "remove" hurdles for civil nuclear partnership between Indian and American firms. The three entities are Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Indira Gandhi Atomic Research Centre (IGCAR) and the Indian Rare Earths (IRE), according to the US Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS). In an address at the IIT-Delhi last week, Sullivan said the US will remove regulations that have prevented cooperation between Indian nuclear entities and American companies. The removal of the three key Indian entities is being seen as an attempt by the outgoing Biden administration to facilitate the implementation of the landmark India-US civil nuclear pact that was sealed 16 years back. The move comes five days ahead of Donald Trump's inauguration as the 47th President of the US. India and the US unveiled an ambitious pla
More than 18 years after India and the US signed a civil nuclear deal, its full potential and promise along with the larger bilateral partnership is yet to be realised, according to a top American expert. While New Delhi is yet to remove obstacles that prevent its purchase of nuclear reactors from the United States, Washington has not been able to match the policy with vision, Ashley J Tellis, the Tata Chair for Strategic Affairs and a senior fellow at the prestigious Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said. US President Joe Biden's ambition to finally fructify the 2005 civil nuclear agreement cannot end with the sale of US nuclear reactors to India. Rather, it must extend to revising long-standing US policies that continue to make the existence of India's nuclear weapons programme an insuperable obstacle to deepened technological cooperation, he asserted in an opinion piece published by Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on Monday. "Where India is concerned, New ..