U.S., India Announce Defense, Power Deals

MATTHEW ROSENBERG

Associated Press

Hillary Rodham Clinton shares a light moment with Indian Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna after signing an agreement on an endowment fund for science and technology.

NEW DELHI -- The U.S. and India announced deals Monday that could bring American defense contractors and power companies billions of dollars in business, as Hillary Clinton wrapped up her first visit as secretary of state to the South Asian nation.

A long-running dispute over how to combat climate change threatened a day earlier to the sour the trip, which has been touted as an effort to strengthen ties between world's two largest democracies after decades of estrangement during the Cold War, when New Delhi often leaned toward the Soviet Union.

Monday's announcements ensured Mrs. Clinton's three-day visit brought tangible gains for both sides, setting the stage for further expanding military cooperation and two-way trade, currently valued at about $45 billion and growing.

"I don't think you can understate the significance of our relationship as two democracies," Mrs. Clinton said at a joint news conference with her Indian counterpart, External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna. "We understand the difficulties of decision-making in democracies, and we respect the vibrancy of each other's democracy. That is a much stronger base for a relationship than any other in the world."

Mrs. Clinton said she had been told by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, whom she met earlier in the day, that India had set aside two sites where U.S. firms will have exclusive rights to build nuclear power plants.

The sites will "facilitate billions of dollars in U.S. reactor exports and create jobs in both countries as well as generate much-needed energy" in India, which faces chronic power shortages, Mrs. Clinton said.

She didn't say where the sites would be. But the widely expected announcement is a major step toward implementing a landmark pact sealed last year between Washington and New Delhi that ended a 34-year ban on trading nuclear fuel and technology with India, which had developed atomic weapons outside the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Already, India has set aside sites exclusively for French and Russian companies. The U.S. sites announced Monday guarantee American access to a market for power plants valued at tens of billions of dollars.

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Reuters

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gestures as she addresses Indian students and university officials during a function at a university campus in New Delhi July 20, 2009.