Enhancing India's Role in the Global Nonproliferation Regime
One of the major objectives of the U.S.-India civil nuclear deal was to bring India within the international nuclear nonproliferation regime by giving it both the rights and responsibilities broadly equivalent to those of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) member states, without requiring it to officially sign the treaty. This allows India to maintain its nuclear weapons deterrent and to obtain access to civilian nuclear technology and fuel.
Source: heritage.org