Narendra Modi broke with protocol to meet President Obama personally at the airport in Delhi
The US and India have announced a breakthrough on a pact that will allow American companies to supply India with civilian nuclear technology.
It came on the first day of President Barack Obama’s visit to India.
The nuclear deal had been held up for six years amid concerns over the liability for any nuclear accident.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the nations were embarking on a “new journey” of co-operation, with stronger defence and trade ties.
Mr Obama said that the nations had declared a new friendship.
Security is intense in Delhi, with Mr Obama to be the guest of honour at Monday’s Republic Day celebrations. Thousands of security personnel have been deployed in Delhi.
‘Renewed trust’
The nuclear pact had been agreed in 2008 but the US was worried about Indian laws on liability over any accidents.
Now, a large insurance pool will be set up, without the need for any further legislation.
US ambassador Richard Verma said: “It opens the door for US and other companies to come forward and actually help India towards developing nuclear power and support its non carbon-based energy production.”
Read more at BBC News
Categories: Asia, Foreign Policy, India, Nuclear power, Politics, Technology, Top stories, World news
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An article worth posting 🙂
India’s construction record isn’t the best but in building a nuclear plant, it has to be. The insurance pool is a good idea especially since the Bhopal gas leak disaster. If I remember right, some still hadn’t received any money.
I think this is an interesting event in as much as the President seals the deal, at a time when the GOP are fighting for the XL pipeline which is really mote now that prices are down and going to stay down for a good while. Unless the oil market feigns a ‘shortage’.. .
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I agree completely, Ecantados. This is a really interesting article.
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There are so many fascinating historical subtexts to this story. My awe and admiration for this American president is nowhere near its end. Now that the politics hardly matter any more, President Obama can dispense with appeasing mediocre intellects and simply do the great things that will become his legacy. Like FDR, history will judge this man as one of our greatest presidents–and those who opposed him, as trivial and pathetic footnotes, remembered only by a few learned scholars of historical minutiae.
A little known fact is that the largest corporate donors to Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign were the commercial nuclear power industry. America was facing an energy crisis that threatened to destroy its economic foundation. An all-of-the-above energy strategy was clearly in order and open to discussion. Rescuing America from economic catastrophe was the first order of business for the new president. In principle, President Obama was open to “clean coal” technologies, the expansion of offshore drilling, nuclear power, and the development of renewable energy resources.
But “clean coal” wasn’t even a reality, offshore drilling all too soon became a national nightmare, and the illusion of safe nuclear technology was suddenly annihilated one fine spring day by a tsunami.
Now, let’s consider the geopolitical and the global environmental significance of India, and the challenges faced by the soon-to-be most populous nation on Earth–threatened by China to the east, Pakistan to the west, and harsh demographic realities from every other direction.
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I completely tickled by the whole meeting. President Obama is earning his peace prize, one nation at a time.
He has a lot more work to do.
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