NEW DELHI: President Barack Obama and his Indian counterpart met and paved the way for American companies to build nuclear power plants as the two countries sought to transform a fraught geopolitical relationship into a fresh partnership for a new era of cooperation.
Obama and Modi also renewed a 10-year defense pact, agreed to joint military hardware production and resolved to reduce the threat of greenhouse gas emissions to the world’s climate. The climate agreement included mostly minor initiatives, none of the scale of the deal that Obama struck in November with China. But U.S. officials were encouraged that after years of India’s disavowing responsibility to help curb emissions, Modi told Obama that climate change was “an article of faith” for him and expressed determination to fight it.