India-US to work towards denying WMDs to non-state actors

New Delhi: The 9th round of the India-US Strategic Security Dialogue was held in Washington DC on March 13 and two sides reaffirmed to deny Weapons of Mass Destruction to non-state actors and work towards setting up US nuclear plant in India agreement for which was reached few years back.

The Indian delegation was led by Vijay Gokhale, Foreign Secretary, while the U.S. delegation was led by Andrea Thompson, Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security.

The two sides exchanged views on a wide range of global security and nonproliferation challenges and reaffirmed their commitment to work together to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their delivery systems and to deny access to such weapons by terrorists and non-state actors, according to a MEA statement.


The two sides committed to strengthen bilateral security and civil nuclear cooperation, including the establishment of six U.S. nuclear reactors in India. The United States reaffirmed its strong support of India’s early membership in the Nuclear Suppliers Group, the statement added.

Earlier, on March 12, Indra Mani Pandey, Additional Secretary for Disarmament and International Security Affairs, Ministry of External Affairs, and Dr. Yleem D. S. Poblete, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Arms Control, Verification and Compliance, co-chaired the third round of the India-U.S. Space Dialogue, where they discussed trends in space threats; respective national space priorities; and opportunities for cooperation bilaterally and in multilateral fora.