The United States is now finalising the necessary steps to remove long-standing regulations that have prevented civil nuclear cooperation between India’s leading nuclear entities and US companies, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan announced here on Monday.

”The formal paperwork will be done soon but this will be an opportunity to turn the page on some of the frictions of the past and create opportunities for entities that have been on restricted lists in the United States to come off those lists and enter into deep collaboration with the United States, with our private sector, scientists and technologists to move civil nuclear cooperation forward together,” he said addressing an event here.

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Mr Sullivan is in New Delhi to hold talks with National Security Advisor Ajit Doval on issues ranging from space, defence, strategic technology cooperation as well as shared security priorities in the Indo-Pacific region.

This is perhaps the last official visit of a top official in the outgoing Joe Biden administration in the US before Mr Donald Trump’s inauguration as the new president on January 20.

Recalling that former US President Bush and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh laid out a vision of civil nuclear cooperation nearly 20 years ago, he regretted that the two countries have yet to fully realise it. ”But as we work to build clean energy technologies to enable growth in artificial intelligence, and to help US and Indian energy companies unlock their innovation potential, the Biden administration has determined that it is past time to take the next major step in cementing this partnership,” he added.

Mr Sullivan also stated that it was Mr Doval who had always viewed that technology and particularly advanced technologies of the future would be a propellant for the US-India relationship in a way that could take the two countries forward, advance their respective interests, protect their respective values and build a better world for everybody.

”During the past four years, he (Mr Doval) and I have developed a deep personal and professional relationship that has played a critical role in ensuring that the US-India partnership has reached that new high level that I talked about before,” he said.

Earlier today, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar held talks with Mr Sullivan on Indo-US ties and hailed the latter’s contribution in strengthening the relationship between the two nations.

”Delighted to meet US NSA @JakeSullivan46 in New Delhi today morning. Continued our ongoing discussions on deepening bilateral, regional and global cooperation. Valued the openness of our conversations in the last four years. Appreciated his personal contribution to forging a closer and stronger India-US partnership,” Mr Jaishankar wrote on ‘X’ after the meeting.