Leaders from Japan and India agreed Wednesday to enhance bilateral
cooperation, with Tokyo pledging further assistance for development in
the emerging market country in a move that would help increase Japanese
exports, including atomic power plants, Kyodo News reported.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his counterpart Manmohan Singh
also showed interest in a stronger security alliance between the two
countries, condemning North Korea's nuclear and missile development
ambitions, while indicating their shared concerns about the increasingly
assertive maritime policy of China.
The leaders "expressed their resolve to further consolidate
and strengthen the Strategic and Global Partnership between Japan and
India in the years ahead, taking into account changes in the strategic
environment," a joint statement released after their meeting in Tokyo
said.
Amid growing demand for electricity in India, as a result of
its rapidly expanding economy and increasing population, Mr. Abe and Mr.
Singh agreed to accelerate bilateral talks on civil nuclear
cooperation, an agreement which must precede any Japanese exports of
technology or equipment to construct atomic power plants in India.
The talks, launched in June 2010, have been stalled in the
wake of the March 2011 Fukushima crisis. The expected accord would ban
any diversion to military use of imported technologies or devices.
But there remain concerns among experts as long as India,
which has conducted nuclear testing in competition with neighboring
Pakistan despite international criticism, is outside the Nuclear
Nonproliferation Treaty, the basis for global cooperation on stemming
the spread of nuclear weapons.
The leaders "reaffirmed their shared commitment to the total
elimination of nuclear weapons," with Mr. Singh underscoring "India's
commitment to its unilateral and voluntary moratorium on nuclear
explosive testing," the statement said.