New Delhi, August 21
Japan will participate “positively” in discussions at the Nuclear Suppliers Group on Indo-US nuclear deal, a senior Japanese government official said today as Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe arrived here on a three-day official visit.
The importance New Delhi attaches to Abe’s visit is evident from the fact that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh departed from protocol and hosted a private dinner for Abe even though his ceremonial reception at Rashtrapati Bhavan is scheduled tomorrow morning.
Hiroshige Seko, special adviser to Abe, indicated Japan’s willingness to forge a civil nuclear cooperation pact with India. He added that Japan was among the very few countries, which had built new nuclear power plants and possessed the technology to develop next generation nuclear energy utilisation. He exuded confidence that despite the political crises in Japan and India, bilateral ties between the two countries would be taken forward by successive governments.
He said Japan was keen on early conclusion of a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA). During Abe’s visit, the two countries are expected to finalise partnership on the Delhi-Mumbai industrial corridor and the freight
corridor.
Economic ties
On August 14, the government of Japan had formalised an agreement to extend a package of official development assistance to India, in the form of soft loans totalling Rs1,345 crore.
For the last four consecutive years, India has been the top recipient of Japanese soft loan assistance. Considering that the total amount of Japanese soft loan to developing countries has been decreasing all these years, this contrast in case of India reflects the depth of Japan-India development partnership, and the high importance Japan attaches to India.
Besides, the Japanese government has also introduced a new “double-tracked process” in the loan procedure, so that India could receive loan package more promptly than ever.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has nominated minister of state for Industry Ashwani Kumar as the accompanying minister for visiting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during the latter’s three-day visit to India.
Kumar visited Japan last month in July and held discussions with some of the Japanese business leaders presently accompanying Abe to India.
