UNLOCKING POTENTIAL OF INDIA-US NUCLEAR DEAL

WHEN dealing with major powers, context is everything. The farewell visit of the US National Security Adviser to India, aimed at finalising certain details of ongoing nuclear and high-technology cooperation, brought the landmark 2008 civil nuclear deal back into focus.

- JAYANTH JACOB

appeal among tech giants facing rising energy needs. While it's uncertain how much nuclear energy will meet this demand, companies like Amazon, Microsoft and Google-parent Alphabet are betting big on nuclear power, with Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos backing such initiatives. Though more expensive, nuclear energy is a clean form of energy.

The Americans have yet to reap any commercial benefits from the nuclear deal for US companies. Of course, the India-US deal was embedded as part of the larger India-US global strategic partnership, touted as part of a transformed relationship between the two countries.

Reflecting on the complex and intricate process of negotiating the nuclear deal, Shivshankar Menon, former Foreign Secretary and a key negotiator of the Indo-US nuclear deal, addressed the criticism that India could not trust the Americans with such a strategically important agreement. In his book, Choices: Inside the Making of Indian Foreign Policy, he argued: "The real answer was that US commercial, strategic, and other interests, once enmeshed into the Indian programme, would ensure continuity." That's true as the nuclear deal remained a focal point of the engagements with the two countries in the larger context of their high-technology and nuclear cooperation since 2008.

The Biden administration had unexpectedly given new momentum to the US-India nuclear partnership. Given Biden's pivotal role in the US Senate in sealing the US-India civil nuclear agreement, he as president, actively supported the goal of bringing this accord to fruition by completing negotiations for US nuclear reactor sales to India.