Progress on negotiations for an atomic trade deal between Japan and nuclear-armed India has slowed over Tokyo's request that New Delhi provide diplomatic indicators it is moving nearer to signing the international ban on nuclear tests, the Hindu newspaper reported Sunday (see GSN, Oct. 25).
The report came ahead of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's current visit to Japan.
In their second round of talks for a civilian nuclear deal that would permit Japanese firms to export nuclear technology and materials to the South Asian state, Tokyo suggested that India should participate in the International Monitoring System, a still-developing system of 321 monitoring sites and 16 laboratories designed to identify indicators of an atomic detonation. The IMS initiative is connected to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.
"If India agrees to be a part of IMS, this will have a bearing on the India-Japan civil nuclear agreement," Japanese diplomats said. "There is reluctance in Japan to proceed with this agreement because India is not part of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and the events 12 years ago (India conducting nuclear tests) is recent history. So Japan expects India to be more forthcoming."
As India developed a strategic arsenal outside the nuclear treaty, it was for years cut off from the global atomic marketplace. A 2008 deal reached with the United States paved the way for other countries to strike their own nuclear cooperation agreements with the South Asian state.
Indian-Japanese negotiations are not likely to advance because New Delhi does not want to commit itself to any operation that falls under the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, the Hindu reported.
"The idea is to slowly draw us in and we are not going to agree," informed Indian sources said.
Other proposals have involved New Delhi financially supporting the test ban regime and sending envoys to CTBT meetings as observers. India is reported to have refused these suggestions as well.
India has voluntarily suspended nuclear testing. Late last year, Singh indicated that his government's position on the test ban could change if Beijing and Washington were to join the pact. China, India and the United States and China are three of nine "Annex 2" states that must ratify the treaty for it to enter into force.
Japanese officials said they anticipate their negotiators will emphasize that the political climate in Washington does not presently favor U.S. ratification of the treaty as the Democratic Party is broadly anticipated to do poorly in next month's midterm election.
"Then naturally we expect more from India. I guess Japan will take this up," a Japanese diplomat said, adding that Tokyo had already backed off its earlier desire to see New Delhi join the test ban regime and cease production of nuclear weapons material as conditions for receiving a Nuclear Suppliers Group trade waiver in 2008. Japan ultimately fell in with other NSG nations in agreeing to permit atomic exports to India.
Indian officials, however, feel assured that Tokyo will bend its position given that Japan extended the invitation for atomic trade talks to energy hungry India (Sandeep Dikshit, Hindu, Oct. 24).
India today dismissed speculation that the trade talks were stalled and said the two countries plan to hold a third round of negotiations in one month in Tokyo, Asian News International reported.
"The impetus or the idea to strengthen or look at the possibility of nuclear cooperation has been amply expressed from both sides and there is enthusiasm on part of Japan and enthusiasm on part of India to take this project forward," Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao said while accompanying Singh in Tokyo.
"There is a certain momentum to this process and this is a very positive momentum," she said (Naveen Kapoor, Asian News International I/Thaindian News, Oct. 25).
Singh and Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan pledged yesterday to quicken the pace of atomic trade negotiations, the Associated Press reported. The two Asian nations are negotiating what potential penalty should be if India were to carry out a new nuclear test after the trade deal was enacted (Malcolm Foster, Associated Press/USA Today, Oct. 25).
"We would hope that Japan would be India’s partner in expanding our nuclear energy for peaceful purposes," Singh said at an event in Tokyo. "But I do recognize the sensitivity of this subject in Japan, and I wouldn’t therefore force the issue," Asian News International quoted him as saying.
Nuclear militarization continues to be a sensitive topic in Japan, where the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were hit with U.S. atomic weapons to force the country's surrender in World War II (Naveen Kapoor, Asian News International II/Thaindian News, Oct. 25).
During direct talks yesterday, Kan and Singh restated their support of a world without nuclear arms, Asian News International reported (Asian News International III/Thaindian News, Oct. 25).
Meanwhile, India appears ready to sign a key accord that would permit the nation to receive international financial assistance in the event of an atomic disaster, sources said. The Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage also sets out international atomic liability standards, NDTV reported.
Joining the accord is seen as key to assuaging U.S. criticisms that New Delhi's new domestic nuclear liability law breaches international norms. Fears over the possibility of costly lawsuits in the event of an atomic accident might keep some U.S. atomic firms from doing business with India, observers have said (NDTV, Oct. 24).
(source:globalsecuritynewswire.org)
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