Japan keen on inking nuclear agreement with India

Appreciating India's track record on the non-proliferation front, Japan on Friday expressed keenness to conclude the civil nuclear agreement with it at the earliest, but made it clear that such cooperation would be suspended if New Delhi conducted an atomic test.

With one round of negotiations on nuclear cooperation already having been concluded, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna and his Japanese counterpart Katsuya Okada discussed the issue and agreed that discussions needed to be pushed forward, but set no timelines.

At the fourth round of the Strategic Dialogue, the two countries also agreed to push efforts for United Nation's reforms under the format of G-4 grouping and in this regard decided to reach out to the 53-nation African continent whose support is vital.

Okada, who met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh earlier in the day, said he had flagged the need for having civil nuclear cooperation, pushing economic ties and stepping up efforts for UN reforms.

After the Strategic Dialogue meeting, Krishna told a joint press conference with Okada that, "We agreed that the negotiations will continue quickly and that we will jointly work towards a good agreement which will result in a win-win situation for both India and Japan."

He said the two countries did "not intend to set a time-line for the conclusion of such an agreement."

Okada also said the two sides intended to conclude the agreement as soon as possible but no timelines had been fixed. The negotiations for the nuclear agreement were initiated in June when one round of talks was held in Tokyo.

Okada said the decision to launch negotiations for civil nuclear cooperation agreement with India, which had not signed NPT, was "possibly the toughest decision that I have taken as foreign minister" in his 10-month tenure.

At the meeting, he said he had expressed 'appreciation for efforts' made by India in the field of nuclear non-proliferation. However, he noted that Japan was the only country to have suffered a nuclear attack and the 'philosophy of non-proliferation' would have to reflect in the agreement.

Okada said that while engaging India, Japan would not be able to run contrary to its policy on non-proliferation.

"I don't think we can suggest that India should refrain from conducting a nuclear test but if such a thing were to happen, Japan will have no option but to suspend cooperation," he said, adding this would have to be 'built-in' in the agreement through proper 'wording' and 'terminology'.

The Japanese foreign minister said he had conveyed to Krishna that his country attaches importance to India's efforts on Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty.

Krishna said on disarmament issues, he had conveyed to Okada that India was "ready to work with Japan to achieve" an objective of nuclear weapon-free world in a "comprehensive, non-discriminatory and verifiable framework".

India has maintained that it would be ready to work with the international community for bringing CTBT and FMCT into effect. Okada said the two sides also discussed ways to boost trade and exchanged views on Afghanistan, Pakistan and North Korea among other issues.