By BOB GoswamiINDIA - Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada held a fourth round of Indo-Japan civil nuclear co-operation agreement with India Saturday. Speaking at a news conference in New Delhi, the Japanese Foreign Minister said the negotiation on the agreement was one of the toughest decisions.
Mr. Okada visited India for two days and held talks with India’s Foreign Affair Minister S.M Krishna. Japan was initially apprehensive to sign a deal with India as the later is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Earlier a draft was approved by India’s cabinet that said foreign companies were allowed to construct nuclear reactors in India. It has been reported that India’s atomic market is worth $150 billion.
Earlier nuclear negotiation was held in Tokyo June 28. Analysts see this deal an important step to rationalizing the Indo-US nuclear deal since Japanese companies are directly involved with some US nuclear power companies.
When asked about India’s nuclear tests, the Japanese Foreign Minister strongly emphasized that if it were to occur, Japan would have withdrawn the agreement. It is reported that Mr. Okada also had a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
It is expected that a second round of pact would be signed in next month. Japan is sixth largest foreign investor in India and trade between two countries was more than $12 billion last year.
The two countries also talked about the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) and came to a common consensus to get on a new dialogue on Africa.
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