Ahead of President Barack Obama’s visit to India in late January 2015, a meeting of a US-India contact group took place in New Delhi to have discussions on civil nuclear cooperation.
The negotiators included U.S. industry representatives from GE-Hitachi and Westinghouse and counterparts from the Nuclear Power Corporation of India, as well representatives from India’s Department of Atomic Energy, Ministry of External Affairs, and the Finance Ministry.
The Ministry of External Affairs press release said talks were “positive and forward looking.”
Progress between the two sides have been thwarted in the past by U.S. industry objections that India’s Civil Liability Damage Act contains components contrary to the International Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage, an international fund first adopted by the International Atomic Energy Agency in 1997.
Two sections of India’s law, 17b and 46 allow for lawsuits against suppliers, while the Convention addresses indemnification regardless of who or what is to blame for a radiological incident.
During Prime Minister Modi’s visit to Washington in September the two leaders affirmed their intentions of implementing the original deal forged by former Indian PM Manmohan Singh and former President George W. Bush.
