NEW DELHI: India and the United States have reached an agreement to end the deadlock on their six-year-old civilian nuclear power agreement, their leaders said here on Sunday.

“I am pleased that six years after we signed our bilateral agreement, we are moving towards commercial cooperation, consistent with our laws [and] international legal obligations,” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at a joint press conference with US President Barack Obama.

In a departure from protocol, Mr Modi personally received Mr Obama at the airport on Sunday, where he arrived to become the first American leader to attend India’s Republic Day parade on Monday.

The two countries signed a path-breaking civilian nuclear deal under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s watch in 2008. In crafting the deal, Dr Singh in fact lost the crucial support of the communist-led Left Front to his minority government in 2009. The Left Front has again called for protests against Mr Obama’s visit.

Unprecedented security has been clamped on the Indian capital for Mr Obama’s three-day visit to Delhi. The last day of the tour was earmarked for the US First Couple to visit the Taj Mahal, which has been cancelled to allow the president to visit Riyadh on Tuesday to condole the death of the Saudi monarch.

There were no immediate details on how the impasse had been broken, but analysts, and officials said privately Washington had dropped its condition to track the use of nuclear fuel to power the nuclear reactors involved in the future contracts. A liability clause holding the suppliers responsible for any accident has been apparently reworked to suit both sides.

“Today we achieved a breakthrough understanding on two issues that were holding up our ability to advance our civil nuclear cooperation and we are committed to moving towards full implementation,” Mr Obama said at the news conference.

“This is an important step that shows how we can work together to elevate our relationship.”

Between a working lunch and an evening banquet where Obama spoke a smattering of Hindi, the two leaders focused on defence cooperation.

They produced a 10-year framework for defence ties and deals on cooperation that included the joint production of drone aircraft and equipment for Lockheed Martin Corp’s C-130 military transport plane.

Modi sets aside protocol and goes to airport to receive Obama

Other deals ranged from an Obama-Modi hotline – India’s first at a leadership level -- to financing initiatives aimed at helping India use renewable energy to lower carbon intensity.

But Mr Modi cautioned that work was still needed to create a solid partnership between the world’s two largest democracies.

“We have to convert a good start into lasting progress.

This requires translating our vision into sustained action and concrete achievements,” he said, standing next to Mr Obama.

As Mr Obama’s motorcade headed off for the welcome ceremony at the residence of President Pranab Mukherjee, the roads were lined with armed police and soldiers, part of a highly choreographed plan for the visit.

Up to 40,000 security personnel have been deployed for the visit and 15,000 new closed-circuit surveillance cameras have been installed in the capital, according to media reports.

The United States sees India as a vast market and potential counterweight to China’s assertiveness in Asia.

However, frustrations stalk with India’s slow pace of West-backed economic reforms and unwillingness to side with Washington in international affairs.

Mention of Pakistan was largely avoided clearly as a concession to Mr Obama though an old formula on reminding Islamabad to punish the Mumbai terror masterminds was inserted in the joint declaration.

Mr Obama is first US president to travel to India twice while in office. The visit, which follows a summit in Washington in September, comes less than a year since the Obama administration effectively ended its blacklisting of Modi.

India’s Hindu revivalist leader had been shunned by the United States and European Union following anti-Muslim violence in Gujarat in 2002 while Mr Modi was the chief minister.

Elected last May, Mr Modi has come close to Washington while pushing back against China’s growing presence in South Asia. Annual bilateral trade of $100 billion is seen as vastly below potential and Washington wants it to grow fivefold.

Published in Dawn January 26th , 2015

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