New Delhi: The US government on Wednesday (January 15) said it removed three Indian government entities from its export controls list in order to enhance civilian nuclear cooperation between the two countries.
This comes after US national security adviser Jake Sullivan while visiting New Delhi on January 6 announced the Biden government’s decision to remove restrictions on Indian entities in the list to allow for deeper civilian nuclear cooperation.
The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has delisted the IREL (India) Limited (formerly Indian Rare Earths Limited) public sector undertaking, the Indira Gandhi Atomic Research Centre and the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre from the US commerce department’s ‘Entity List’ export controls database.
Following an inter-agency review, the BIS decided to delist the three entities in the interests of “reducing barriers to advanced energy cooperation, including joint research and development and science and technology cooperation, towards shared energy security needs and goals”, it said.
The move will allow for “closer cooperation between the United States and India to secure more resilient critical minerals and clean energy supply chains”, BIS official Matthew Borman said, adding that this was in line with the “overall ambition and strategic direction” of the US-India relationship.
Sullivan while speaking in New Delhi had said that the amendment to the export controls list would allow the affected entities to enter into deeper collaboration with the US, its private sector, and its scientists and technologists in order to further civilian nuclear cooperation.
His announcement came just two weeks before the day president-elect Donald Trump and his government are set to take over the reins in Washington.
He also acknowledged that the vision for civilian nuclear cooperation as laid out in 2005 by former US president George W. Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had not yet been fully realised.
Apart from the presence of Indian entities on US export control lists, a primary challenge for US firms in developing nuclear power plants in India is often identified as India’s civil nuclear liability law, which permits plant operators to seek legal recourse against suppliers in the event of an accident.
In its press release on Wednesday, the BIS also announced it was adding 11 Chinese entities to the Entity List, citing activities detrimental to US national security and foreign policy interests.
Ten of these entities were sanctioned for their advancement of the Chinese military’s modernisation through the “development and integration” of advanced AI research, while the other was added to the list for its involvement in developing a technology that will aid in the production in China of advanced integrated circuits for military use.
