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Japan hails India's track record on nuclear front

Appreciating India's track record on non-proliferation front, Japan today expressed keenness to conclude the civil nuclear agreement with it at the earliest.

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

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

The two sides also decided to push their trade ties by concluding an Economic Partnership Agreement before prime minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Tokyo in October with the Japanese side saying there is scope for 10-fold increase in commerce which was to the tune of $12 billion in 2008-09.

At the fourth round of Strategic Dialogue, the two countries also agreed to push efforts for UN reforms under the format of G-4 grouping and in this regard decided to reach out to 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".

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