Asian Nuclear Energy

United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said her government is fully committed to implementing the Indo-US civilian nuclear accord. Addressing a "Synergies Summit", organized by the United States India Business Council in Washington recently, Clinton referred to the Indo-US nuclear deal, she said, "It is now three successive United States administrations from different parties that have identified the US-India relationship as a foreign policy priority.

For the United States, this is a project that transcends partnership and personalities, and I believe the same is true in India. When the US-India nuclear deal passed the United States Congress, it had strong bipartisan support, including backing from two former senators named Barack Obama and Joe Biden, as well as a senator from New York."

It was Clinton's "tongue-cheek-reference" to the three senators, who went on to become the US President, the Vice President and the Secretary of State respectively.

She said positive relations between the two countries "continued through the last US and Indian administrations and culminated in completion of the Indo-US civilian nuclear agreement this past October under the Bush Administration. This landmark accord, which the Obama Administration is fully committed to implementing, provides a framework for economic and technical cooperation between our two countries and allows us to move beyond our concerns about the status of India's nuclear program, an issue that dominated our relationship for much of the last decade."

Clinton added that the agreement had also received support from across the political spectrum in India. The formation of India's new government is an opportunity to strengthen our ties and launch new initiatives. Now that the government is in place, we are moving quickly to strengthen our ties, she said.

Having established the civil nuclear deal, India and U.S. have now become 'global partners" in shaping 21st century," Clinton said.