New Delhi, Dec 29 (Inditop.com) Pitching for civil nuclear cooperation with Tokyo, India Tuesday made it clear to Japan that it will consider its options on signing the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) only after the US and China show the way by ratifying the pact.
Tokyo, however, kept the door open for civil nuclear business and high-tech trade, saying it will be “an important agenda for the future” in India-Japan dialogue.
Civil nuclear cooperation was among key issues Prime Minister Manmohan Singh discussed with his Japanese counterpart Yukio Hatoyama in wide-ranging talks.
They vowed to push for an early conclusion of an economic partnership agreement to scale up trade and investment and cooperate on a range of global issues, including the UN reforms, climate change and nuclear disarmament.
The two leaders signed an ambitious joint declaration entitled ‘New Stage of India-Japan Strategic and Global Partnership’, which has an action plan on advancing security and counter-terror cooperation as its centrepiece.
The action plan, based on a declaration signed in October last year, unveils a new “2-plus-2” dialogue framework at the subcabinet/senior official level involving the external affairs and defence ministries.
The two sides also decided to ease visa rules within a year to spur trade and tourism and agreed to conclude Comprehensive Economic Partnership Pact (CEPA) by next year, an important move that can multiply the current $13 billion bilateral trade manifold.
But the prospect of closer security cooperation did not translate into a breakthrough in the area of civil nuclear cooperation due to differences over the CTBT, which New Delhi regards as as unfair and discriminatory.
“I expressed the hope that along with the US and China, India will sign and ratify the (CTBT) treaty,” Hatoyama told reporters at a joint press conference.
“In response, Prime Minister Singh said should the US and China ratify the CTBT, a new situation will emerge,” he said.
“I believe he has stated it as a matter of fact. We firmly have to engage in these endeavours,” he added.
Hatoyama wrapped up his three-day visit to India Tuesday, his first stand-alone visit to an Asian country since his party’s surprise victory in the August elections, that ended a five-decade-plus run of the Liberal Democratic Party.
The US and China have signed the CTBT, but has not ratified it due to sharp divisions among the political establishment over its impact on their deterrence. US President Barack Obama has declared the ratification of the CTBT as an important policy goal of his administration and put nuclear disarmament back on global agenda.
Underlining India’s impeccable record in nuclear non-proliferation and the Nuclear Suppliers Group waiver for resuming global nuclear trade with New Delhi last year, Manmohan Singh made a pitch for initiating atomic trade with Japan.
“We had fairly extensive discussions in civil nuclear energy. I explained to the prime minister the circumstances under which India took the nuclear weapon route,” Manmohan Singh said while alluding to India’s 1998 nuclear tests that led Japan and many NSG countries to impose sanctions on India.
Manmohan Singh, however, assured that India will stick to its “unilateral and voluntary moratorium on explosive nuclear testing” and pledged to cooperate in the area of universal nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation.
“That’s a commitment India will honour,” he added.
Japan’s response was non-committal. “We discussed civil nuclear cooperation. This would become a very important agenda in the future,” was all Hatoyama would say. His remarks indicated that Japan, a pacifist nation that swears by a hawkish non-proliferation agenda, may consider exporting atomic materials to India sometime in future.
The two prime ministers shared the view that nuclear energy can play an important role as a safe, sustainable and non-polluting source of energy in meeting the rising global energy demands, said the joint statement.
Urging India to join efforts for a speedy conclusion of the Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty (FMCT), Hatoyama struck an optimistic note on spurring high-technology trade, saying that there is enormous scope in this area. He, however, added that India needs to assure Japan that the Japanese high-tech imports will not be diverted for weapons or to third countries.
