Abe had stressed to reporters Friday that a nuclear cooperation pact between India and Japan – the only country in the world to have experienced atomic bombing – would be strictly limited to civilian uses of the energy. “The partnership between India and Japan has infinite potential”.
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The 16 agreements came during Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit to India, during which he also attended the annual bilateral summit on the “special strategic and global partnership” with his host and Indian counterpart Narendra Modi.
At a joint media event with Modi, Abe said Japan’s cooperation with India in the nuclear field will be limited to peaceful objectives. “PM Modi’s speed of implementing policies and reforms is like the Shinkansen and his reform agenda is as safe as the Shinkansen“, Abe said in Japanese.
Tokyo will provide India with a $12 billion package of financing and assistance for the train, including a low-priced, long-term loan.
Under the two defense pacts signed, the two sides will share technology, equipment and military information. “It will become an engine of economic transformation in India”, he said.
Modi, who represents Varanasi in the Lok Sabha, has visited the city many times since becoming the Prime Minister in May, 2014 though this is going to be the first occasion when he would be accompanied by a foreign counterpart with plans for a better future for residents of the city.
A special finance facility of up to 1.5 trillion Yen has been set up by the Nippon Export and Investment Insurance and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation to promote Japanese investments into India.
Following Saturday’s understanding, it is expected that Japan will soon take up production of US-2 amphibious aircraft, 15 of which are reportedly to be purchased by India.
The two Prime Ministers reiterated their support for each other’s candidature, based on the firmly shared recognition that India and Japan are legitimate candidates for permanent membership in an expanded Security Council.
On the issue of use of spent fuel and reprocessing, Jaishankar said Japanese side was conveyed about the various aspects of India’s nuclear liability regime.
Letter of Intent toward establishing a young researcher’s exchange program between the DST, India and the Japan Society for the promotion of Science: This seeks to establish reciprocal Fellowship program for capacity building and human resource development in frontier areas of Science & Technology.
“Japan Steel Works which dominates the nuclear forging business can ‘fabricate large single piece pressure vessels” for India’s nuclear reactors only if a nuclear deal is signed between the two.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japan Shinzo Abe Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe are holding a bilateral meeting in Delhi today.
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Speakers from South Asia Solidarity Group pointed out that the deal was another face of the U.S. and French imperialism which is now involved in air strikes in Syria and that it would ramp up regional tensions and strengthen USA and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation military power in the region, with Abe and Modi acting as its agents as well as in their own right.
