New Delhi
17 January 2011
As deputy national security adviser Alok Prasad gets ready to assume duties as
Indian ambassador to Japan, Prime Minister Naoto Kan's government in Tokyo has
indicated that CTBT (Comprehensive Test Ban treaty), and India's signing of it, are not
likely to be stumbling blocks for a civil nuclear cooperation agreement being negotiated
by the two countries.
According to sources privy to the negotiating process, CTBT is not a "requirement";
Japan would be willing to go with India's assurance of continuing its voluntary
moratorium on nuclear testing. It is indicative of the relative progress made by the
negotiators since former Japanese foreign minister Katsuya Okada's visit here in August
2010 when he urged New Delhi to ratify the CTBT.
India and Japan began negotiations in June 2010.
A source said Tokyo understands India's constraints; there is "political will" on the
Japanese side but any delay in finalising the pact would primarily be on account of the
need for Tokyo to take a "political decision on how to wrap it up." For its part, Tokyo has
indicated that it is getting closer to the final stage of negotiations, although there were
some issues that needed to be sorted out.
The source said Tokyo recognises the opportunities for the Japanese companies in the
Indian civil nuclear energy sector, particularly in reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel, and
therefore it "does not want to waste time". Another contributing factor is the fact that
American and French companies having joint ventures or collaborations with Japanese
businesses would be handicapped in the absence of an enabling agreement between
India and Japan.
Yukio Hatoyama, Naoto Kan's predecessor as prime minister in the Democratic Party of
Japan-led government, is hopeful that the bilateral nuclear pact can be clinched sooner
than later. Speaking at a business event here Monday, Hatoyama said that while the
Japanese people have particular sentiments about nuclear energy, the need to help
India produce the energy it will need in the future cannot be ignored.
Japan believes that its experience in reprocessing would stand the Japanese companies
in good stead as India works on plans to build a dedicated reprocessing facility, under
IAEA safeguards, for reprocessing, exclusively, foreign-origin spent fuel. The Rokassho
reprocessing plant in Japan, which began operation in 1992, has been constructed with
indigenous technology, with built-in IAEA monitoring equipment and other advanced
design features.
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