Press Trust Of India
New Delhi, Jan 25: India and the US Sunday broke the seven-year-old logjam in operationalising their civil nuclear agreement with an announcement that ‘‘the deal is done’’ after talks between President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In what Obama called a ‘‘breakthrough,’’ the two sides have resolved key hurdles pertaining to the liability of suppliers of nuclear reactors in the event of an accident and the tracking of fuel supplied by the US and other countries for its proposed nuclear plants.
‘‘We have broken the logjam of the past few years. We have reached an agreement. The deal is done,’’ Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh announced after extended discussions between Obama and Modi lasting more than three hours.
The White House said in the night the understanding on the civil nuclear programme resolves the US concerns on both tracking and liability.
‘‘In our judgment, the Indians have moved sufficiently on these issues to give us assurances,’’ US ambassador to India Richard Verma told American journalists.
Neither country needed to take legislative action to complete the agreements reached between the two leaders. The nuclear deal was the centrepiece of Obama-Modi discussions given its contentious nature but the two leaders reached understanding on a number of other areas including defence.
Obama said US and India have made progress on defence partnership and decided to renew the framework agreement for 10 more years.
‘‘Today, we have also decided to take our growing defence cooperation to a new level. We have agreed, in principle, to pursue co-development and co-production of specific advanced defence projects.
‘‘These will help upgrade our domestic defence industry; and expand the manufacturing sector in India. We will also explore cooperation in other areas of advanced defence technologies,’’ Modi said.
The Foreign Secretary said assurances are given to the US side on both the liability clause and tracking issues.
‘‘The liability provisions and administrative arrangements finalised under 123 act (tracking) are consistent with our bilateral legal arrangements and contracts and IAEA safeguards and international laws and obligations,’’ Singh said.
‘‘The civil nuclear agreement was the centrepiece of our transformed relationship, which demonstrated new trust. It also created new economic opportunities and expanded our option for clean energy.
‘‘In the course of the four months, we have worked with a sense of purpose to move it forward. I am pleased that six years after we signed our bilateral agreement, we are moving towards commercial cooperation, consistent with our law, our international legal obligations, and technical and commercial viability,’’ Modi said.
On defence and security, she said both countries have agreed on four projects under the Defence Technology Transfer Initiative (DTTI) including exploration of development of advanced jets in India.
