Washington DC [US], February 14 : Following a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump, the two leaders strengthened their energy security partnership and stressed the growing collaboration between India and the United States, said MEA in its official statement.
The two countries reaffirmed their commitment to increasing energy trade, ensuring energy security, and establishing the US as a leading supplier of crude oil, petroleum products, and liquefied natural gas (LNG) to India, the official statement added.
The statement from the Ministry of External Affairs noted that both leaders agreed that energy security is fundamental to economic growth, social well-being and technical innovation in both countries. They underscored the importance of US-India collaboration to ensure energy affordability, reliability, and availability and stable energy markets. Realising the consequential role of the US and India, as leading producers and consumers, in driving the global energy landscape, the leaders re-committed to the US-India Energy Security Partnership, including in oil, gas, and civil nuclear energy.
The leaders underscored the importance of enhancing the production of hydrocarbons to ensure better global energy prices and secure affordable and reliable energy access for their citizens.
They also highlighted the value of strategic petroleum reserves to preserve economic stability during crises and resolved to work with key partners to expand strategic oil reserve arrangements. Thus in this context, the US side affirmed its firm support for India to join the International Energy Agency as a full member, the MEA in its statement added.
In a significant development, the two leaders reaffirmed their commitment to increase energy trade, as part of efforts to ensure energy security, and to establish the United States as a leading supplier of crude oil and petroleum products and liquified natural gas to India, in line with the growing needs and priorities of our dynamic economies. They underscored the tremendous scope and opportunity to increase trade in the hydrocarbon sector including natural gas, ethane and petroleum products as part of efforts to ensure supply diversification and energy security. The leaders committed to enhance investments, particularly in oil and gas infrastructure, and facilitate greater cooperation between the energy companies of the two countries.
Additionally, the leaders reiterated their commitment to fully realize the US-India 123 Civil Nuclear Agreement by moving forward with plans to work together to build US-designed nuclear reactors in India through large scale localization and possible technology transfer, the MEA stated.
Further, as per its statement, both sides welcomed the recent Budget announcement by Government of India to take up amendments to the Atomic Energy Act and the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act (CLNDA) for nuclear reactors, and further decided to establish bilateral arrangements in accordance with CLNDA, that would address the issue of civil liability and facilitate the collaboration of Indian and U.S. industry in the production and deployment of nuclear reactors.
This path forward will unlock plans to build large US-designed reactors and enable collaboration to develop, deploy and scale up nuclear power generation with advanced small modular reactors, the MEA statement said.
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