U.S., India near nuclear liability breakthrough
NEW DELHI - President Barack Obama and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Sunday they had achieved a breakthrough on long-stalled cooperation on civilian nuclear projects, reflecting warming ties between the nations.
Though Obama said the two countries had taken an "important step," neither man provided details on how an earlier 2005 U.S. decision to provide India nuclear fuel and reactor components would finally be implemented.
Stumbling blocks have long included Indian legislation allowing nuclear suppliers to be sued over accidents and U.S. insistence that any nuclear fuel sold to India be tracked to prevent weapons proliferation.
"We think we came to an understanding of the liability" issue, U.S. Ambassador Richard Verma said. The deal "now opens the door for U.S. and other companies to come forward and help India develop its nuclear, non-carbon-based energy production."
Power-starved India plans a $182 billion expansion of its nuclear industry to produce electricity for the almost one- quarter of the country's 1.2 billion people who routinely go without it. U.S. companies such as General Electric Co. and Westinghouse Electric Co. that have stayed away from India must decide whether the arrangement is adequate, Verma said.
India plans to establish a $122 million insurance pool to shield affected operators and suppliers, according to Amandeep Singh Gill, joint secretary of disarmament in the foreign ministry. The government would provide more at a later date "on a tapering basis," he added.
It remains unclear what would happen if unlimited claims come in the wake of a disaster, according to Debasish Mishra, Mumbai-based partner at Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu.
"This is a government-to-government agreement and ultimately the final deals will be signed between companies," he said. "There's a feeling that not everything has been resolved."
Meanwhile, Obama will shorten his trip to India and divert to Saudi Arabia, paying respects after the death of King Abdullah and meeting with the oil-rich nation's new monarch, the White House said Saturday.
The scheduling shift, announced just before Obama left Washington, underscores the desert kingdom's pivotal role in U.S. policy in the Middle East, including the military campaign against the Islamic State group.
Saudi Arabia's status as one of Washington's most important Arab allies has at times appeared to trump U.S. concerns about the terrorist funding that flows from the kingdom and about human rights abuses.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Obama would meet on Tuesday with King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud and other officials to "offer his condolences on behalf of the American people."
The president called Salman from Air Force One to express his sympathies on the passing of his older brother. The White House said the king welcomed the news that Obama would be traveling to Riyadh.
Obama's pivot comes two weeks after the White House faced criticism for not sending a high-level representative to Paris for a peace rally in the wake of terrorist attacks in France. The White House later said it was a mistake that someone with more stature than the U.S. ambassador to France had not joined the dozens of world leaders who marched arm in arm through the boulevards of Paris.