Japan set rider for signing pact

A hesitant Tokyo agreed to clinch a nuclear deal with New Delhi, only after making India turn its voluntary freeze on atomic weapon tests into a pre-condition for cooperation with Japan in the field.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe witnessed signing of the “Agreement for Cooperation in Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy” in Tokyo on Friday. But in addition to the landmark agreement, another related document titled “Note on Views and Understanding”, made it clear that Japan would suspend its nuclear cooperation with India, in case New Delhi ended the unilateral moratorium it had imposed in 2008 on its atomic weapon tests.

It was in fact the “Note on Views and Understanding” that ended the impasse in negotiations between India and Japan on the civil nuclear agreement.

The note clearly stated that the September 5, 2008, statement made by the then external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee (now President of India) on behalf of the government of India constituted “an essential basis” for India-Japan nuclear cooperation. Mukherjee had affirmed New Delhi’s commitment to “a voluntary, unilateral moratorium on nuclear testing”. The statement had been issued at a time when New Delhi had been desperately trying to secure a waiver from the Nuclear Suppliers Group to pave the way for the United States and other members of the cartel to start atomic power cooperation with India. The NSG waiver and Indo-US deal had finally ended the 34-year-long isolation from global nuclear commerce that India had been pushed into in the aftermath of the Pokhran-I nuclear test in 1974.
 
India re-affirmed its September 5, 2008 statement in the note it inked with Japan on Friday.

Tokyo made it clear in the note that “an Indian action in violation of” the September 5, 2008, statement by New Delhi “could be viewed as a serious departure from the prevailing situation” and Japan might exercise its right to terminate all sorts of nuclear cooperation with India in accordance with the Article 14 of the main agreement.

New Delhi is a signatory of neither the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty, nor the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. This is why Japan — the only country to experience nuclear devastation — was cautious to enter into atomic power cooperation with India.