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The show of support by Perry came after Pittsburgh-based
Westinghouse's bankruptcy filing had raised doubts about the
proposed construction of six nuclear reactors in India's Andhra
Pradesh state.
The agreement to build reactors, announced in 2016, was the
result of a decade of diplomatic efforts as part of a U.S.-India
civil nuclear agreement signed in 2008.
"Nobody in the world makes better reactors than Westinghouse,"
Perry told journalists after a meeting with India's oil and gas
minister Dharmendra Pradhan in New Delhi.
"They had some challenges in the past from its business
practices. We leave that where it is. The bottom line is, that's
all behind them. They are lean and mean and ready to get to the
work."
Westinghouse, owned by Japan's Toshiba Corp <6502.T> which is to
be bought by a unit of Canada's Brookfield Asset Management Inc
<BAMa.TO> <BAM.N>, is one of the world's leading suppliers of
nuclear fuel and provides some form of service to 80 percent of
the world's 450 commercial reactors.
Perry and Pradhan released a joint statement to "reaffirm their
strong commitment to early and full implementation of our civil
nuclear partnership, including the Westinghouse civil nuclear
project". They also said the two countries would deepen
cooperation on oil and gas, power, renewable energy and coal.
"In keeping with the shared objectives to provide a stronger
business orientation to our energy cooperation, both sides noted
with appreciation the growing investment of Indian companies in
the United States and the beginning of oil and gas exports from
the United States to India," they said in the statement.
The United States under President Donald Trump has been looking
to sell more energy products to India, the world's third-biggest
buyer of oil.
Pradhan said India wants to buy more U.S. crude oil "subject to
reasonable pricing". New Delhi has also sought U.S. companies'
participation in India's strategic petroleum reserves.
(Reporting by Nidhi Verma and Sudarshan Varadhan; Writing by
Krishna N. Das; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani and Susan Fenton)
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