Soon after Atal Bihari Vajpayee became Indian Prime Minister , he authorised nuclear weapons testing at Pokhran . The United States strongly condemned this testing , promised sanctions , and voted in favour of a United Nations Security Council Resolution condemning the tests . President Bill Clinton imposed economic sanctions on India , including cutting off all military and economic aid , freezing loans by American banks to state-owned Indian companies , prohibiting loans to the Indian government for all except food purchases , prohibiting American aerospace technology and uranium exports to India , and requiring the US to oppose all loan requests by India to international lending agencies . However , these sanctions proved ineffective – India was experiencing a strong economic rise , and its trade with the US only constituted a small portion of its GDP . Only Japan joined the US in imposing direct sanctions , while most other nations continued to trade with India . The sanctions were soon lifted . Afterward , the Clinton administration and Prime Minister Vajpayee exchanged representatives to help rebuild relations
nuclear weapons testing
Pokhran-II
India–United States relations