As he prepares to meet President Barack Obama in Washington, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh hopes the US will be “more liberal” in transferring technologies to India and clear the way for implementing the landmark agreement on nuclear cooperation.
Singh, who leaves for Washington tomorrow, gave enough indications in an interview to The Washington Post that nuclear cooperation would be high on his agenda during talks with Obama.
“We have a landmark agreement with the US on nuclear cooperation. We would like to operationalise it and ensure that the objectives for the nuclear deal are realised in full,” he said.
Singh said the restrictions on technology transfers to India “make no sense” since the country has an impeccable record of non-proliferation. “My hope is that we can persuade the US administration to be more liberal when it comes to transferring technologies to us. The restrictions make no sense. India has an impeccable record of not participating in any proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. So that’s my number one concern,” he said.
Top Indian and US officials are holding hectic parleys to conclude a deal on reprocessing of spent fuel before the November 24 Singh-Obama meeting.
The US side is insisting on an assurance from India on nuclear non-proliferation, a sticking point in clearing the way for nuclear commerce.
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The requirement of the “assurance”, which is seen as a “proximate obstacle” in doing business, has suprised the Indian side which is looking forward to the implementation of the 123 Agreement for civil nuclear cooperation signed last year.
The Obama administration cited the requirement of the assurance in February last and this has been pushed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Energy Secretary Stevan Chu during their visits to India later. It feels that in the absence of such an “assurance” from India, the US Department of Energy may find it difficult to issue the mandatory licence — called Part 810 (pronounced Part eight ten) — to American companies for doing any kind of civilian nuclear trade with the country.
Singh, the first world leader to be State guest under the ten-month-old Obama Administration, set a positive tone to the visit, saying in the interview that India and US are strategic partners.