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Witness History

The nuclear mango deal

Witness History

BBC

Personal Journals, Society & Culture, History

4.5 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 16 March 2026

⏱️ 12 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On 2 March 2006, the United States and India finalised a controversial nuclear deal, ending India's three decades of international isolation over its nuclear policy.

Sweetening the deal, President George W Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced cooperative agreements not just on nuclear power but also on the import of Indian mangoes.

Surya Elango speaks to Ronen Sen, the former Indian ambassador to the US. Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by and curious about the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there.

For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more.

Recent episodes explore everything from how the Excel spreadsheet was developed, the creation of cartoon rabbit Miffy and how the sound barrier was broken.

We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: the moment Reagan and Gorbachev met in Geneva, Haitian singer Emerante de Pradines’ life and Omar Sharif’s legendary movie entrance in Lawrence of Arabia.

You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, like the invention of a stent which has saved lives around the world; the birth of the G7; and the meeting of Maldives’ ministers underwater. We cover everything from World War Two and Cold War stories to Black History Month and our journeys into space.

(Photo: President George W Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on 2 March 2006. Credit: Jim Young via Reuters)

Transcript

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0:00.0

BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.

0:07.0

An early start here. It's time to kick off.

0:10.0

Your day. Morning!

0:11.9

What a line-up.

0:13.3

Oh, thanks very much. We do get some great guests on the show.

0:16.1

The crowd is loving this.

0:18.3

Thanks, guys. Thank you. Too kind.

0:20.2

From morning chaos to match day commentary. And everything in

0:24.4

between. BBC sounds packed with personality. Hello and welcome to witness history from the BBC

0:35.3

World Service. I'm Suria Alango. We're the podcast that takes you back to a key moment in history. We bring it all to life through incredible archive and the amazing memories of key witnesses. Episodes are just nine minutes long and they come out every weekday. If that sounds like your thing, make sure you hit subscribe wherever you get your BBC

0:56.5

podcasts and turn your push notifications on so you never miss a moment.

1:01.1

Today, we're travelling back to the 2nd of March 2006, when a historic visit to India

1:07.7

by the US President George W. Bush changed the course of Indian and US trade relations, involving nuclear energy and mangoes.

1:17.3

The deal reached during Mr Bush's official visit to India will see the United States giving support to India's civil nuclear energy programme.

1:25.3

In return, India has offered to open up some of its reactors to inspectors.

1:29.8

Mr. Bush described the agreement as historic.

1:32.0

Short-term history shows that the United States and India were divided. We didn't have much of a relationship.

1:40.1

And as a result, there are laws on the books that reflect that.

1:43.5

For over 30 years, India and the US have been in a standoff.

1:48.6

Now the relationship is changing dramatically.

1:52.6

This civil nuclear agreement would correct a historical wrong.

1:58.4

This is Ronan Sen.

...

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