The new understanding removes both the US demand for tracking its nuclear supplies, and US suppliers’ liability in case of a nuclear accident.

President Obama and Prime Minister Narendra Modi both hailed the New Delhi negotiations as a breakthrough and a new step in US-Indian relations.

The US and India have been in a deadlock for six years, with Washington insisting on tracking any nuclear material it supplied to India. The US president used his executive powers to waive away the measure and agree that from now on, inspections of India’s use of fissile materials by the IAEA will suffice.

“We are committed to moving towards full implementation,” the US leader told journalists at a conference in New Delhi, where the meeting was being held.

For his part, Modi said that “the civil nuclear deal was the centerpiece of our relationship. We worked with a sense of purpose for four months after I visited the US in September last year to make sure the deal is taken forward.”

The US will agree to provide insurance coverage to those companies that want to build nuclear power stations in India.

According to US Ambassador Richard Verma the liability issue is to be resolved through a “memorandum of law within the Indian system” that wouldn’t require change of the Indian law.

“Ultimately it’s up to the companies to go forward, but the two governments came to an understanding,” Richard Verma told the press.

The two countries had signed what became the basis of the current agreement back in 2008. But an obstacle to trade relations was always India’s unwillingness to shield US suppliers from responsibility for accidents, which is part of India’s strict liability law passed in 2010.

Currently, all nuclear power in India is controlled by the state-owned Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd., meaning that the operator itself would lose out in the event of an accident, under the new conditions.

The two leaders admitted at the conference that their partnership still required work and that, according to Modi, “we have to convert a good start into lasting progress. This requires translating vision into sustained action and concrete achievements.”