India, Japan sign landmark civil nuclear deal

NEW DELHI: Six years after they started negotiations, India and Japan finally signed a landmark nuclear agreement, opening the way for India to be able to commission nuclear reactors by global entities.In his media statement, prime minister Narendra Modi said, “today's signing of the Agreement for Cooperation in Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy marks a historic step in our engagement to build a clean energy partnership.”"A landmark deal for a cleaner, greener world! PM @narendramodi and PM @AbeShinzo witness exchange of the landmark Civil Nuclear Agreement," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup tweeted.The completion of nuclear deal comes as the Nuclear Suppliers group is meeting in Vienna to discuss, among other things, whether non-NPT countries like India can enter this exclusive grouping. The India-Japan deal, sources believe, would have an impact. The deal will be operationalised after the Japanese Diet (parliament) ratifies the deal.Briefing journalists, foreign secretary, S. Jaishankar, said the Japan nuclear deal had a number of similarities with the US deal. However, while the US deal was done in four stages, the Japan deal compressed all four stages – 123 agreement, reprocessing, administrative arrangements and NSG – into one. In addition, Jaishankar said, Japan’s own concerns meant that nuclear safety and security took a bigger space in this deal. Japan, like US, has built in a clause that would cease cooperation if India conducted nuclear tests.In his statement Abe referred to both NPT and CTBT, but Jaishankar reaffirmed the Indian position that India abides by both these agreements even though its not a signatory. India, he said, had taken on certain non-proliferation commitments in September 2008 while applying for the NSG waiver. India stood by these, and these have been the basis for its application to membership of the NSG.The summit itself was a follow-up of the 2014-2015 summits, with PM Modi calling on the King, holding talks with Shinzo Abe , and even meeting Yoshiro Mori former Japanese prime minister, whose visit to India in 2000 actually set off the new and improved India-Japan relationship.Japan has now become the premier partner for India’s modernization, particularly in the infrastructure sector. “As we embark on a transformation programme, many of these draw upon the experience of Japan,” Jaishankar said. The missing piece in Japan’s investment in India has been skills – the joint statement says Japan would train 30,000 Indians in Japanese style of manufacturing through the Japanese institutes of manufacturing. “We now have the full architecture to take our economic cooperation forward,” Jaishankar said.Although India signed a nuclear deal with the US it needed a similar deal with Japan to actually realise the deal. India commissioned six EPR reactors from Areva and another four from Toshiba-Westinghouse. Both companies use Japanese components which would not be forthcoming in the absence of a nuclear deal with Japan. In particular, Japan Steel Works is the global leader for manufacture of the reactor vessel, which is a core component. Areva even tied up with L&T, but for either L&T or Bharat Forge to acquire that specialization would take a long time.Japan’s reticence on the deal stemmed from its own nuclear history and India’s non-NPT status. But growing strategic convergence between the two countries have worked to alter perceptions and policies.