There is apparently some problem with this link: < http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Tokyo-to-Delhi--We-need-more-assurances-for-n-deal/661170 >.
Here is another and the complete story. Sukla http://in.news.yahoo.com/48/20100817/804/tnl-tokyo-to-delhi-we-need-more-assuranc_1.html <http://in.news.yahoo.com/48/20100817/804/tnl-tokyo-to-delhi-we-need-more-assuranc_1.html>Tokyo to Delhi: We need more assurances for n-deal Tue, Aug 17 04:58 AM Talks between India and Japan on a civil nuclear cooperation agreement have run into trouble after this year's Nagasaki declaration specifically criticised the Japanese government for launching negotiations with India. Under severe domestic pressure,Tokyo has now conveyed that New Delhi's non-proliferation commitments to Washington as per the Indo-US 123 agreement are not enough. This is a setback to the talks which started in June. Officials here had hoped for "considerable progress" by the time Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited Japan in October. While another round of talks is slated before the PM's visit, sources said, progress is likely to be below expectations. In fact, Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada will be in India on Saturday and this issue will figure in the conversations. Japan is an essential part of India's nuclear cooperation plans with the US and, to some extent, with even France. The agreement is necessary for GE and Westinghouse to source materials from Japan and given that both these companies have a deep partnership with Hitachi and Toshiba respectively, a lot depends on the prospects of this agreement. In fact, these companies can take a final decision on the technology and kind of reactors that would be built at the two Indian sites allotted to the US only after they get a clear indication of where the India-Japan agreement is headed. While the two countries made a positive start by launching talks in June, the reaction in Japan has made it difficult for the Japanese government. The Nagasaki declaration, issued by the city's Mayor on August 9 to mark the dropping of the atom bomb on the city, specifically mentioned the talks with India as it criticised the Japanese governments of the past for the "secret nuclear pact" with US. On India, it came down hard on the present government. "We harbour profound distrust of the government's past responses that have turned the three Non-Nuclear Principles into a mere formality. Moreover, the government has recently been promoting negotiations on a nuclear agreement with India, a non-NPT member country with nuclear weapons. This means that a nation that has suffered atomic bombings itself is now severely weakening the NPT regime, which is beyond intolerable." Not just that, the mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki even met the Japanese PM on the issue and asked him to call off the talks unless India joins the NPT. While Tokyo says it understands the Indian position on NPT, it wants the agreement to include the statement India made to assure the Nuclear Suppliers Group of its intentions which helped break the impasse in Vienna. In September 2008, when the NSG was deliberating on the exemption for India, the then External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee made a statement after several countries in the NSG demanded that India undertake certain binding non-proliferation commitments. While India refused to formalise any such commitment, it did make a political statement that reaffirmed India's no-first use policy, a commitment to the successful completion of a verifiable FMCT and enunciation of certain clear-cut export-control policies to prevent illegal spread of these sensitive technologies. The Japanese demand to have this made part of a bilateral document is a step ahead of what is contained in the Indo-US agreement. For India, the language in the 123 agreement is the template for all other agreements. However, sources said, Japan wants more than that and also an improvement on the NSG exemption. These may prove to be tall demands and, officials said, Japan will have to assess the economic consequences because its inability to reach an agreement with India would mean that all material would have be sourced only from the US. -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth?hl=en-GB.
