India reaffirms commitment to buy 6 N-power plants from US
14 Mar 2019
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India has reaffirmed its commitment to buy six nuclear power plants from the United States, as the two countries extend energy cooperation on the lines of the historic agreement to cooperate in civil nuclear energy sector signed in October 2008.
The two countries announced the decision in a joint statement issued at the end of the 9th round of India-US Strategic Security Dialogue, co-chaired by foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale and US under secretary of state for arms control and international security Andrea Thompson, on Wednesday.
“They committed to strengthen bilateral security and civil nuclear cooperation, including the establishment of six US nuclear power plants in India,” the joint statement said.
India and the US signed a historic agreement to cooperate in civil nuclear energy sector in October 2008. The deal gave a fillip to bilateral ties, which have been on an upswing since.
The deal helped India secure a special waiver by the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) to India enabling it to sign cooperation agreements with a dozen countries.
Post-waiver, India signed civil nuclear cooperation agreements with the US, France, Russia, Canada, Argentina, Australia, Sri Lanka, the UK, Japan, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Kazakhstan and South Korea.
On Wednesday, the United States also 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 the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their delivery systems and to deny access to such weapons by terrorists and non-state actors.
On Tuesday, delegations from the two countries discussed trends in space threats, national space priorities and opportunities for cooperation bilaterally and in multilateral fora.
The third round of India-US Space Dialogue was co-chaired by Indra Mani Pandey, India’s additional secretary for disarmament and international security affairs Yleem D S Poblete, US assistant secretary of state for arms control, verification and compliance.
