US to establish six nuclear power plants in India to bolster bilateral cooperation

Giving a boost to bilateral security and civil nuclear cooperation, India and the United States on Wednesday agreed to establish six American nuclear power plants in India. The agreement came after the ninth round of India-US Strategic Security Dialogue, which was co-chaired by Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale and US Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Andrea Thompson.

“They committed to strengthening bilateral security and civil nuclear cooperation, including the establishment of six US nuclear power plants in India,” a statement issued by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said. In 2008, India and the US signed an agreement to cooperate in the civil nuclear energy sector in order to bolster bilateral cooperation. The US also reaffirmed its strong support of India's early membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). China has blocked India's membership of the 48-member grouping that seeks to prevent nuclear proliferation by controlling the export of materials, equipment and technology that can be used to manufacture 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, the MEA statement said. On March 12, Indra Mani Pandey, India's Additional Secretary for Disarmament and International Security Affairs, and Yleem DS Poblete, US Assistant Secretary of State for Arms Control, Verification and Compliance, co-chaired the third round of India-US Space Dialogue.

Both sides discussed trends in space threats, respective national space priorities, and opportunities for bilateral cooperation and in multilateral fora. In October last year, a similar agreement to build six more nuclear plants in India was signed between India and Russia following the annual bilateral summit talks by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin in New Delhi.

(With inputs from agencies.)