US moves to clear path for civil nuclear ties as Sullivan visits

The US is finalizing the necessary steps to lift long-standing regulations that deterred civil nuclear cooperation between India’s leading nuclear entities and American firms, US national security advisor (NSA) Jake Sullivan said.

Sullivan, who was in India on 5-6 January on his last tour before he demits office, was speaking at the Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi (IIT-Delhi) after meeting external affairs minister S. Jaishankar and his Indian counterpart Ajit Doval.

Sullivan said former US president George Bush and then Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh laid out a vision of civil-nuclear cooperation 20 years ago.

India signed a historic deal in 2007 that allowed it to buy dual-use nuclear technology from the US, including equipment and materials for reprocessing plutonium and enriching uranium.

However, even after 18 years, Delhi waits for the removal of rules that prevent the purchase of nuclear reactors from the US.

The US’s decision to remove those long-standing regulations “is another historic step forward on that journey,” Sullivan said.

The NSA briefed the Indian side on the updates the incumbent Joe Biden administration made to US missile export control policies under the missile technology control regime, a ministry of external affairs press release issued following the meeting between the two NSAs and Jaishankar said.

Washington’s latest move “is a statement of confidence in the progress we have made—and will continue to make—as strategic partners and as countries who share a commitment to peaceful nuclear cooperation,”  Sullivan said.

On the India-US Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies (iCET), which was signed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Biden in May 2022, Sullivan raised concerns about the transfer of dual-use technology to Russia.

“As we see more and more new technologies diverted to to unfriendly actors, the US and India are going to have to ensure that valuable dual-use technologies don’t fall into the wrong hands,” he said, adding “that means aligning our export control systems, looking at trade measures to protect our industrial strategies from overcapacity, better securing our supply chains.”