Ashley J Tellis, a former US official involved in the India-US civil nuclear agreement and a leading American strategic affairs expert, has stated that in order to meet the agreement's vision, india must clarify its civil nuclear liability legal framework, either through an amendment or by specifying liability limits in commercial agreements or a broad inter-governmental agreement.

For its part, the US must abandon its "absurd" and "maniacal" technology restrictions system, which stems from worries over India's nuclear weapons development, and allow for technology transfers to india in a variety of fields, according to Tellis.

Tellis, the Tata chair for strategic affairs at the think tank, articulated the strategic rationale of expanded nuclear cooperation in a study for the Carnegie Endowment for international Peace on Monday.

Discussions on civil nuclear issues have gained traction under the Joe Biden administration, with Biden, as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, playing a key role in pushing the deal through the US Congress, eager to see the American nuclear industry receive the benefits that it had hoped for.

Both countries, in joint statements, referred to "intensified consultations" between relevant entities on both sides to expand opportunities for "facilitating" bilateral collaboration in nuclear energy, "including in the development of next-generation small modular reactor technologies in a collaborative mode" during prime minister Narendra Modi's state visit to washington dc in June, and then during Biden's visit to delhi in September. The US government is said to have contacted Tellis on the matter and how to proceed with the nuclear tale.

India and the united states agreed on civil nuclear cooperation in 2005 and formalised it in 2008, owing partly to then-President George W Bush's resolve to removing structural impediments that had hampered the two nations' strategic partnership, with an eye on China's increasing might. The agreement saw india agree to separate civil and military nuclear reactors and open the former up to international inspections. In exchange, despite not being a signatory to the Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT), the US aided India's entry into the club of nuclear-haves by changing both the international legal regime and its own domestic legislation and opening the doors for cooperation in the domain of nuclear commerce.
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G GOWTHAM

28/11/2023 09:42 AM