Japanese Foreign minister Katsuya Okada held the fourth round of India-Japan strategic dialogue with External Affairs minister S M Krishna here on Saturday. Sources told The Sunday Express that the two nations are set to conduct the next round of negotiations on the civilian nuclear cooperation agreement in September end even as Okada described Japans decision to start negotiations on the agreement with India as one of the toughest decisions,if not the toughest he has taken as the Foreign minister. The two sides began nuclear deal negotiations on June 28 in Tokyo. The deal with Japan is key to operationalising the Indo-US nuclear deal since Japanese companies have stakes in US nuclear power companies. Okada said at the joint press conference that during the meeting,he expressed appreciation on the efforts made by India towards nuclear non-proliferation and a nuclear weapons-free world. Asked about the consequences of India testing a nuclear device,Okada who also met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh,said while he didnt think the situation would arise but if it were to happen,Japan will have no option but to suspend civilian nuclear cooperation with India. At the joint press conference,Krishna said: I conveyed to Foreign Minister Okada our appreciation of Japans decision to commence negotiations on a bilateral Agreement on Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy. We agreed that the negotiations will continue quickly and that we will jointly work towards a good agreement which will result in a win-win situation for both India and Japan. We do not intend fixing set a time-line for the conclusion of such an agreement, the External Affairs minister said. Krishna told Okada that since India and Japan share the goal of a nuclear weapon-free world,New Delhi is ready to work with Japan to achieve such an objective in a comprehensive,non-discriminatory and verifiable framework. New Delhi has always considered NPT and CTBT as discriminatory in nature. Besides nuclear cooperation,the two sides also discussed the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) and decided to embark on a new Dialogue on Africa.
