Japan asks India to put no-nuke goal in bilateral nuke pact
Aug. 23, 2010
Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada said Saturday he has asked Indian External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna to strive to let the idea of nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation be incorporated into a nuclear energy cooperation pact the two countries are negotiating.
At a joint press conference after their strategic dialogue, Okada said Japan has no choice but to halt its cooperation under the envisaged pact in the event India conducted a nuclear test.
''We cannot help but say we would halt our cooperation,'' said Okada, who is in New Delhi on the first leg of a five-day trip to India and Thailand.
Krishna said, ''I conveyed to Foreign Minister Okada our appreciation of Japan's decision to commence negotiations on a bilateral agreement on the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.''
In a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh prior to the fourth strategic dialogue between the two countries' foreign ministers, Okada also called on India to make more efforts for nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation, Japanese officials said.
Japan hopes to put in the envisaged pact a clause qualifying that Tokyo will halt nuclear energy cooperation if New Delhi conducts a nuclear test, apparently to assuage critics of its starting in late June negotiations for a pact with India despite India's development of nuclear weapons without signing the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty.
But it is unlikely the Indian government will accept such a clause easily, and rough going is expected before the ongoing talks may produce any agreement, observers say.
The nuclear cooperation pact would enable Japan to transfer civilian nuclear technology and nuclear substances to the South Asian country.
Singh welcomed the two countries starting negotiations for the pact and said his country will continue its nuclear test moratorium and cooperate with Japan toward a world without nuclear weapons, the officials said.
In the strategic dialogue, however, Krishna said India has not been forced to adopt a moratorium on nuclear tests by other countries, according to an Indian diplomatic source.
The nuclear talks have triggered an outcry from survivors of the 1945 U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II, because India has developed nuclear arms without signing the NPT.
Okada and Singh also agreed to make efforts to reach an agreement on a free trade pact that would further remove curbs on bilateral trade and investments when Singh visits Japan this fall, as well as to cooperate for a swift reform of the U.N. Security Council, they said.
Japan wants to help spur its economic growth by increasing exports to the gigantic Indian market with a population of 1.2 billion on the basis of the envisioned trade liberalization pact, they said.
(Distributed by Kyodo News on Aug. 21, 2010)
At a joint press conference after their strategic dialogue, Okada said Japan has no choice but to halt its cooperation under the envisaged pact in the event India conducted a nuclear test.
''We cannot help but say we would halt our cooperation,'' said Okada, who is in New Delhi on the first leg of a five-day trip to India and Thailand.
Krishna said, ''I conveyed to Foreign Minister Okada our appreciation of Japan's decision to commence negotiations on a bilateral agreement on the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.''
In a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh prior to the fourth strategic dialogue between the two countries' foreign ministers, Okada also called on India to make more efforts for nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation, Japanese officials said.
Japan hopes to put in the envisaged pact a clause qualifying that Tokyo will halt nuclear energy cooperation if New Delhi conducts a nuclear test, apparently to assuage critics of its starting in late June negotiations for a pact with India despite India's development of nuclear weapons without signing the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty.
But it is unlikely the Indian government will accept such a clause easily, and rough going is expected before the ongoing talks may produce any agreement, observers say.
The nuclear cooperation pact would enable Japan to transfer civilian nuclear technology and nuclear substances to the South Asian country.
Singh welcomed the two countries starting negotiations for the pact and said his country will continue its nuclear test moratorium and cooperate with Japan toward a world without nuclear weapons, the officials said.
In the strategic dialogue, however, Krishna said India has not been forced to adopt a moratorium on nuclear tests by other countries, according to an Indian diplomatic source.
The nuclear talks have triggered an outcry from survivors of the 1945 U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II, because India has developed nuclear arms without signing the NPT.
Okada and Singh also agreed to make efforts to reach an agreement on a free trade pact that would further remove curbs on bilateral trade and investments when Singh visits Japan this fall, as well as to cooperate for a swift reform of the U.N. Security Council, they said.
Japan wants to help spur its economic growth by increasing exports to the gigantic Indian market with a population of 1.2 billion on the basis of the envisioned trade liberalization pact, they said.
(Distributed by Kyodo News on Aug. 21, 2010)
