India to Japan: Let US, China ratify CTBT first (Second Lead)
By IANSTuesday, December 29, 2009
NEW DELHI - Japan Tuesday urged India to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), but kept the door open for civil nuclear cooperation and high-tech trade in the future. India in its turn put the onus on the US and China to show the way by ratifying the treaty.
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.
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.
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.
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.
After initial hesitations, Japan, which depends on atomic power for over 40 percent of its electricity requirements, supported waiver for New Delhi in the NSG last year that reopened the doors of global atomic trade for India after a gap of 34 years.
