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Japan to lift sanctions on Pakistan, not India

Japan is planning to follow the United States in dropping sanctions against Pakistan, imposed after a series of nuclear weapons tests, a report said in Tokyo.

The Jiji press news agency, quoting the foreign ministry, said that an announcement would be made at a meeting of the foreign ministers of the two countries on November 18.

But in contrast to Washington, Tokyo plans to leave sanctions in place until further notice against India, which also carried out tests in mid-May, the report said.

An announcement was made in Washington and Islamabad last weekend, six months after the tests, that US sanctions against both Pakistan and India would be dropped in view of the progress made in talks about a nuclear test ban and nuclear non-proliferation.

However, neither country has yet signed a test ban treaty.

The report said Japan would remove the sanctions against Pakistan 'almost completely', freeing up the resumption of credit aid from the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the Asia Development Bank as well as yen credits and aid programmes.

Although the sanctions against India remain in force, said the report, Japan had been making efforts to reopen sub-cabinet level talks between the two countries from January.

Tokyo will consider easing sanctions on India as soon as such a meeting showed it could be confident of India's good intentions not to promote the spread of nuclear weapons, the report added.

UNI

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