India and the US are working together to address serious issue of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction; which is now moving forward in right earnest following the visit of the US President Barack Obama to India in November.
India and the US signed a memorandum of understanding that allows the two countries to cooperate on global nuclear security issues under the auspices of Global Centre for Nuclear Energy Partnership, which India announced at the 2010 Nuclear Security Summit.
“Specifically, we agreed to give priority to discussion of best practices on the security of nuclear material and facilities, development of international nuclear security training curricula and programs, and joint outreach on nuclear security issues to our nuclear industries,” assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia, Robert Blake, said in his address before the Syracuse University in New York.
The United States sought to ramp up high technology trade and collaboration through two critical steps, he said.
TheUnited States agreed to support India’s full membership in the four multilateral export control regimes (Nuclear Suppliers Group, Missile Technology Control Regime, Australia Group, and Wassenaar Arrangement) and the US pledged to remove India’s space and defence entities from the Commerce Department’s Entity List as India aligns its export controls with global standards.
“The department of commerce published a Federal Register notice yesterday to fulfil that commitment,” Mr Blake said.
—PTI