12.11.16

N-deal with Japan!

Six years after negotiations began, India and Japan signed a landmark nuclear agreement, opening the doors for India to commission nuclear reactors by global entities and boosting India's claim to membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).
The deal is significant in view of the reservations of Japan, the only country to have been attacked by nuclear weapons, and for India's efforts to diversify the sources of equipment and technology it will need to boost nuclear power generation.
Referring to the deal, the highlight of his visit to Japan, PM Modi said, “Today's signing of the agreement for cooperation in peaceful uses of nuclear energy marks a historic step in our engagement to build a clean energy partnership.“ His Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe said, “It (the agreement) is in line with Japan's ambition to create a world without nuclear weapons.“ The completion of the nuclear deal comes as the NSG is meeting in Vienna to discuss, among other things, if non-NPT countries like India can enter the exclusive grouping. The India-Japan deal, sources believe, would have an impact. Abe said, “This agreement is a legal framework that India will act responsibly in peaceful uses of nuclear energy and also in nonproliferation regime even though it is not a participant or signatory of NPT.“
Foreign ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup tweeted, “A landmark deal for a cleaner, greener world. PM Narendra Modi and PM Shinzo Abe witness exchange of the landmark civil nuclear agreement.“ The deal will be operationalised after the Japanese Diet (parliament) ratifies it. Foreign secretary S Jaishankar said the deal had a number of similarities with the US nuclear deal. However, while the US deal was done in four stages, the Japan pact compressed all four stages-­a 123 agreement, reprocessing, administrative arrangements and NSG ­into one. In addition, Jaishankar said, Japan's own concerns meant that nuclear safety and security received bigger space in this deal.
Japan, like the US, has built in a clause that it will cease cooperation if India conducts nuclear tests. In his statement, Abe referred to both NPT and CTBT, but Jaishankar reaffirmed the Indian position that Delhi abided by both these agreements even though it was not a signatory. He said India had taken on certain non-proliferation commitments in September 2008 while applying for the NSG waiver, and would stand by them as they were the basis for its application to NSG membership.
The summit itself was a follow-up of the 2014-15 summits, with Modi calling on Emperor Akihito and even meeting Yoshiro Mori, former Japanese PM, whose visit to India in 2000 set off the new and improved India-Japan relationship. Japan has now become a premier partner for India's modernization, particularly in the infrastructure sector.

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