India, Japan for early civil N- deal

Tokyo (PTI): Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe on Wednesday decided to speed up talks on a civil nuclear deal to allow Japan to export nuclear reactors to India and to bolster maritime security cooperation at a time when China's postures in the seas of the regional have caused concerns. A joint statement issued at the end of exhaustive talks between Singh and Abe said the two Prime Ministers reaffirmed the importance of civil nuclear cooperation between the two countries, while recognising that nuclear safety is a priority for both governments.

"In this context, they directed their officials to accelerate the negotiations of an Agreement for Cooperation in the Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy towards an early conclusion," it said. "Everything is linked to Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)," Tomohiko Taniguchi, Councillor, Cabinet Secretariat, said on being asked whether India inking the NPT is linked with progress on the civil nuclear cooperation agreement. Japan is the only country in the world to have faced nuclear attacks. Negotiations for the civil nuclear cooperation agreement have not made much headway since Japan was struck by Fukushima nuclear disaster in March, 2011. While Japan has backed the Indo-US nuclear deal and the exemptions given to India from international technology sanctions, successive governments in Tokyo have found the going tough in garnering political support for it in the face of stiff opposition from the non-proliferation lobby here.

Move on amphibian aircraft sale Japan on Wednesday moved a step closer to signing a landmark agreement on the supply of amphibious planes to India, as the two sides decided to establish a Joint Working Group to explore the modality for the cooperation. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe issued a joint statement in which they laid down the course of co-operation over the US-2 amphibian aircraft.

Japan to ease defence export ban Moving with the times, the Japanese government has decided to 'loosen the ban' on export of defence goods. The easing of defence export ban could mean that Japan could sell its amphibious aircraft US-2 (ShinMaywa) to India, Tonohika Taniguchi, said councillor and a member of the Japanese prime minister's strategic team. The ShinMaywa US-2, known as the flying boat, is an STOL (short takeoff and landing) large amphibious aircraft used for air-sea rescue missions. Japan has not been selling defence goods and equipment to other countries owing to a ban on this. "The Japan government itself imposed the ban on defence goods' exports. To catch up with the reality of the 21st century, the Japan government has decided to loosen the ban," informed Taniguchi.