An agreement to cooperate in civil nuclear energy sector was signed in October 2008.

New Delhi and Washington have agreed on a proposal to build six nuclear power plants in India.

This was stated in a joint statement issued on March 13 at the conclusion of the 9th round of India-U.S. Strategic Security Dialogue in Washington, co-chaired by Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale and Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Andrea Thompson.

“They committed to strengthen bilateral security and civil nuclear cooperation, including the establishment of six U.S. nuclear power plants in India,” the joint statement said.

India and the U.S. signed a historic agreement to cooperate in civil nuclear energy in October 2008. The deal gave a fillip to bilateral ties, which have been on an upswing since.

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.

Agreements signed with many nations

Post waiver, India signed civil nuclear cooperation agreements with the U.S., France, Russia, Canada, Argentina, Australia, Sri Lanka, the U.K., Japan, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Kazakhstan and South Korea.

On March 13, the U.S. reaffirmed its strong support to India’s early membership 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.

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

On March 12, Indra Mani Pandey, India’s Additional Secretary for Disarmament and International Security Affairs, and Yleem D. S. Poblete, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Arms Control, Verification and Compliance, co-chaired the third round of India-U.S. Space Dialogue.

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