N-deal: India hails lifting of US curbs on 3 entities

“It is a welcome step,” said External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal at a media briefing.

“These (BARC, IGCAR and IRE) were in the entity list of the US for several years now. With this action by the US government, it will lead to greater collaboration between India and the US in the field of nuclear energy and also in the field of critical minerals,” he said.

Jaiswal indicated that efforts will be put in to address issues relating to nuclear liability.

Certain clauses in India’s nuclear liability norms have emerged as hurdles in moving forward in implementation of the historic India-US civil nuclear deal that was firmed up around 16 years back. “These are steps which will now be discussed. It will open up new avenues of collaboration in the civil-nuclear field and hopefully questions about liability etc will also be discussed and taken forward,” Jaiswal said.

The removal of restrictions on the three key Indian entities is being seen as an attempt by the outgoing Biden administration to facilitate the implementation of the landmark India-US civil nuclear pact.

India and the US unveiled an ambitious plan to co-operate in civil nuclear energy in July 2005 following then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s meeting with American President George W Bush.