External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar's meeting with US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan in New Delhi on January 6 (image: x.com/DrSJaishankar)

New Delhi: The US on Wednesday removed restrictions on three Indian nuclear entities – Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR) and the Indian Rare Earths Limited (IREL) – from its ‘entity list’. The significant move came a week after US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said in an address at the IIT-Delhi that Washington was finalising steps to remove “long-standing regulations” for civil nuclear partnership between Indian and American firms.

The Entity List by the US is a list of foreign individuals, businesses and organisations that are subject to export restrictions and licensing requirements for certain goods and technologies.

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The list is formulated by the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) of the US Department of Commerce and its aim was to prevent unsanctioned trade in items that could be redirected to terrorism, weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programmes, or other activities that are viewed by the US as going against its foreign policy or national security interests.

The removal of restriction is considered as an attempt by the outgoing Biden administration to enable the implementation of the landmark India-U.S. civil nuclear pact that was secured 16 years back. This step has also taken five days ahead of Donald Trump’s inauguration as the 47th President of the US.

“The removal of the three Indian entities will enable closer cooperation between the US and India to secure more resilient critical minerals and clean energy supply chains”, said Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Export Administration Matthew Borman.

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The BIS, in a statement said that both US and India share a commitment to advancing peaceful nuclear cooperation and associated research and development activities.

The cooperation in science and technology over the past several years has aided both countries and their partners around the world, the statement added.