ABSTRACT
The beginning of the twenty-first century marked an important development in India–US relations where the two states had committed to cooperate with each other in almost every sector of mutual interest. The India–US Strategic Partnership had been termed “irreversible”. President Bush assured India that he would work to relax nuclear trade between the two states if a distinction was drawn between the military and civilian aspects of India’s nuclear complex, while India agreed to do so and place many but not all of its reactors under safeguards. During his state visit to India on March 2, 2006, President Bush declared his intention to conclude a nuclear cooperation agreement with India and called it a “necessary nuclear power agreement”. The 2005 announcement of intended US-India nuclear cooperation was similarly initiated to breathe new life into the US nuclear industry.
