Modi, Shinzo Abe seal civil Nuclear-pact, boost India's energy plans

Tokyo/New Delhi: Japan and India signed a historic non-military nuclear accord on Friday, allowing Tokyo to supply New Delhi with fuel, equipment and technology for nuclear power production, as India looks to sustain its rapid economic growth through atomic energy.

The deal will also make it much easier for US-based companies like Westinghouse and GE to set up nuclear power plants in India since both companies have Japanese investments.

The deal signed after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting with his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe will help India’s plan to ramp up nuclear capacity more than ten times by 2032.

The accord took six years of negotiations and is seen as a big move to build India into a regional counterweight to China. It also bolsters India’s non-proliferation credentials when it’s trying hard to enter Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). In all, India and Japan on Friday signed 10 agreements.

Mr Modi praised the “growing convergence” of views between India and Japan, saying strong ties will enable them to play a stabilising role in Asia and the world. “Today’s signing of the agreement marks a historic step in our engagement to build a clean energy partnership,” Mr Modi said.

It was the first time Japan, the only country to have suffered a nuclear attack, has concluded such a pact with a country that is not signatory to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT). Japanese firms are world leaders in nuclear energy. Barring the Russians, most others depend on them.

“This agreement is a legal framework that India will act responsibly in peaceful uses of nuclear energy,” Mr Abe said.

The accord stipulates nuclear fuel and equipment provided can only be used for peaceful purposes, and a separate document signed alongside the nuclear agreement has a clause allowing Japan to terminate the pact if India conducts a nuclear test.

The nuclear agreement with Japan follows a similar one with the United States in 2008, which gave India access to nuclear technology after decades of isolation.

India is in advanced negotiations with U.S.-based Westinghouse Electric, owned by Japan’s Toshiba Corp, to build six nuclear reactors in southern India.

Former foreign secretary and former Ambassador to US Lalit Mansingh said, “Japanese support is critical because American companies bidding under the Indo-US nuclear deal rely on Japanese technology and without Japanese clearance, progress under the Indo-US nuclear deal is not possible. A lot of components manufactured in Japan also cannot be used without Japanese clearance.”

Other nations who have signed civil nuclear deal with India include the US, Russia, South Korea, Mongolia, France, Namibia, Argentina, Canada, Kazakhstan and Australia.

A memorandum of cooperation was also signed between India’s ministry of skill development and entrepreneurship and Japan’s ministry of economy, trade and industry on the manufacturing skill transfer promotion programme. It envisages training 30,000 Indian youths in the Japanese styled manufacturing in the next 10 years.

A memorandum of understanding was signed between ISRO and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) on cooperation in the field of outer space.

Another pact was signed between India’s ministry of agriculture and farmers’ welfare, and japan’s ministry of agriculture, forestry and fisheries to deepen the bilateral cooperation.