India, Japan likely to resume formal nuclear talks

India and Japan are expected to resume the stalled dialogue on the possible nuclear cooperation agreement between the two countries when Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda visits India on Tuesday.

Senior official of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Gautam Bhambawale, said: "There have been informal discussions and this is a subject which will be discussed when Indian and Japanese Prime Ministers meet."

India and Japan have already concluded three rounds of talks on nuclear cooperation. The discussions between the two sides were stalled earlier this year in the wake of Fukushima tragedy in April this year.

Ever since the Fukushima tragedy, Japan has been looking inwards to address the issues raised by the catastrophe and New Delhi is hopeful that Japan will resume the stalled dialogue when Prime Minister Noda visits India.

Japan has remained a firm advocate of Non Proliferation and it was a paradigm shift in the country's approach for even commencing dialogue on nuclear cooperation with India last year.

India is non-signatory of the Non Proliferation treaty and has not even inked comprehensive test ban treaty.

Japan is the only country, which had witnessed nuclear attacks, and it is really difficult for Tokyo to mould the pubic opinion in favour of signing nuclear cooperation agreement with India.

Japan is a key supplier of equipments to French and US nuclear energy companies like the Areva and General Electronics.

During the Japanese Prime Minister's visit to India, both sides are also looking forward to scale up economic partnership. The talks on Delhi-Mumbai freight corridor is expected to advance during the discussions, proposal of supplying bullet trains to Indian railways is also on the cards.

The two sides are also expected to ink a swap deal in currency.

Tokyo is the biggest donor of ODA i.e. overseas development assistance.

India and Japan will also discuss maritime cooperation, piracy and counter terrorism.

The Japanese Prime Minister will be in India on Tuesday and Wednesday. This will be his first visit to India.oda has, however, met Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh on the sidelines of United Nations General Assembly in September this year. By Naveen Kapoor (ANI)

Source: http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/?sid=202149882

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