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Indian External Affairs Minister SM Krishna has welcomed the tangible progress made between India and the United States on nuclear energy cooperation, and added that nuclear commerce is now beginning to expand itself. He said that he hoped that more Indian and American companies would be involved in the months to come. Krishna said that he and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton supported the growing emphasis on defense technology transfers and core development and production in the expanding defense relationship. He also said that stronger and more effective cooperation in counter-terrorism, homeland security, cyber security, and intelligence in recent years was an important aspect of the US-India strategic partnership. He also said that India has reiterated its demand and interest for further access to Headley and Rana in accordance with legal procedures for the investigations into the Mumbai terror attack of November 2008 was raised. Krishna said that the Indian side had recommended a broad portfolio of cooperation in clean energy and had also sought a liberal U.S. regime for gas exports to India , which he felt would be in the mutual economic and energy security interest of both countries. “We agreed to strengthen the impressive array of our programs in higher education, health, science and technology, innovation, agriculture, and women’s empowerment. We have made tangible progress in these areas,” Krishna said. “As Secretary Clinton has pointed out, our discussions demonstrated yet again our shared interest and convergent views on a range of regional and global issues. We are committed to build Afghan capacity for governance, development, and security, and to unlock its economic potential through regional integration. We again stressed the importance of eliminations of safe havens in Pakistan for Afghanistan ’s security and the region’s stability,” he added. “We discussed the Gulf region and West Asia, including our concern about the growing violence in Syria . Secretary Clinton updated me on the P-5+1 talks with Iran . I conveyed India ’s vital interest in settlement of the Iranian nuclear issue through dialogue,” the External Affairs Minister said. “Our meeting today yet again underscored the global dimensions of our relationship and added new momentum to our partnership,” Krishna concluded.

Krishna sees progress in India-US nuclear cooperation