US hints at lifting sanctions on India's nuclear facilities

 Washington wants to advance energy ties with New Delhi and strengthen the historic 20-year-old civilian nuclear agreement. US National Security Advisor Jack Sullivan

Tuesday, January 7, 2025

Washington (UrduPoint News Today- 07 January 2025) US National Security Advisor Jack Sullivan has said that the US government is working to remove sanctions on India’s nuclear facilities, with the aim of advancing energy relations with New Delhi and strengthening the 20-year-old historic civilian nuclear agreement.

On Jack Sullivan’s visit, the Indian newspaper “Indian Express” says that strengthening the strategic partnership with India has been the policy of the US during the previous Trump administration and the Biden administration, and Sullivan’s visit in these days of power change in Washington indicates the growing strategic coordination between the two countries. According to the American broadcaster, Washington and New Delhi have been negotiating the supply of American nuclear reactors since the mid-2000s as India desperately needs energy to meet the needs of its rapidly growing economy. Nuclear power plants are considered an important source of clean, sustainable and cheap energy around the world, but on the other hand, nuclear reactors can also be used to make deadly nuclear weapons, which requires close monitoring to prevent.

In 2007, then-US President George W. Bush signed an agreement with India that allowed the United States to sell civilian nuclear technology to India, but a long-standing obstacle to the completion of the agreement has been the determination of liability on India under international law, which requires that the burden of any accident be borne by the user of the reactor, rather than the manufacturer.

Sullivan said at an event in New Delhi on the second day of his two-day visit to India that the United States is finalizing the necessary steps to eliminate antiquated regulations that have hindered civilian nuclear cooperation between India's key nuclear agencies and American companies. It was not immediately clear what changes the United States would make to its regulations, and American and Indian officials did not provide any details.

He said that the paperwork for the regulation will be completed soon. This will be a process of reversing some of the past disputes and creating opportunities for Indian entities on the US sanctions list to get out of it. Commenting on the visit of US National Security Advisor Sullivan to India, Manoj Joshi, an analyst at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi, said that the visit mainly indicates the importance of US-India relations and cooperation on key technologies by the Biden administration. However, regarding the change of power in the US, he also said that at this time we do not know what shape these relations will take under Trump.

Four institutions of India's Department of Atomic Energy are still on the US Commerce Department's sanctions list, while some nuclear reactors and nuclear power plants are also on the list. In 2019, India and the US agreed to build six nuclear power plants in India.