Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'India to do N-deal with Japan' that was published in Newsband

India to do N-deal with Japan

So far India has done N-deal with 11 countries so far, including the U.S., Russia, Australia, Canada and South Korea. Japan is the only country to have been the victim of a nuclear attack, and its decision to sign an agreement with India, would be a first.

Japan’s support at the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) has been particularly marked. India and Japan share many multilateral platforms, including membership of the G-4 group that is knocking at the UN Security Council’s door for reform. The deal has taken so long to negotiate because of India’s refusal to sign the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty (NPT), as it considers the treaty unfair to the developing world. Japan still remembers the indelible scars at Hiroshima and Nagasaki it received on its back, scorching even today. So Japan understands of the ground realities of the world today.

The nuke deal can prove to be a golden one for India. Not only is it going to improve the nuclear capabilities of India towards peaceful use, it also would go a long way in instilling confidence of the other first world countries in India in turn boosting chances of India's entry into elite nuclear clubs. The psychological gain is certainly the greatest one.

The India-Japan civil nuclear agreement, which is pending since 2008, is ready to be signed when Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits Japan later this year. Japan is insisting that the nuclear deal include a clause that would cut off nuclear supplies should India test a weapon. India has thus far resisted the move, as this would disrupt our nuclear power program. Civil Nuclear agreement is aimed at nuclear cooperation for peaceful purposes only. And the same is confirmed by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan

India-Japan relationship has been flourishing ahead of PM Manmohan Singh’s reciprocal state visit to Japan in May 2013. Japanese officials announced Japan’s commitment to a nuclear deal with India because of three reasons: continued Indian faith in Japanese nuclear technology even after the Fukushima disaster, a strong desire by India for such cooperation with Japan and Japan’s determination to strengthening nuclear safety worldwide by sharing with the world its experience and lessons derived from the nuclear accident. Though no deal was signed during Indian PM Man Mohan Singh’s Japan visit in May 2013, the joint statement issued by the two Prime Ministers said that the two leaders have instructed their respective officials to ‘accelerate’ the nuclear deal.

Japan wants India to sign the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). It does not want us to re-process spent fuel, even for ‘peaceful purposes’ from any reactors that may have Japanese parts and it wants inspections from its own team overarching the IAEA inspection. Japan had said after signing of the MoU on civil nuclear cooperation during Shinzo Abe’s visit to India in 2015, that “Japan is satisfied by the fact that India has a voluntary moratorium on further nuclear testing. Earlier India separated its military and civilian nuclear programme and that apart we also appreciate India’s policy on reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel which provides further safeguards”. The ball was now in the court of Shinzo Abe to convince the Diet and push through the legislation. India cannot give any assurance on CTBT. It cannot also agree to ‘non re-processing’ of spent fuel (as its entire nuclear power generation strategy is based on this premise) and it simply cannot exempt the Japanese on inspection processes.