NEW DELHI, May 26: Early conclusion of a bilateral agreement on civil nuclear cooperation will be high on the agenda as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh leaves tomorrow on a three-day visit to Japan seeking to give a new dimension to strategic partnership.
Singh will hold talks with his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe on a wide spectrum of issues of mutual interest and discuss ways to bolster strategic and global partnership between the two countries.
This is the postponed annual summit between the two Prime Ministers which was originally scheduled for November last year. The visit was deferred in view of the announcement of general elections in December last year.
National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon, Pulok Chatterjee, Principal Secretary to Prime Minister, and other senior officials are accompanying Singh.
Negotiations for the civil nuclear cooperation agreement have not made much headway since Japan was struck by Fukushima nuclear disaster in March, 2011.
“Agreements always take a certain amount of time… Discussions have been given some impetus recently but there are a number of stages we will have to go through before we reach the signature. I cannot put a date on it but we would certainly like to progress,” Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai said in an indication that several issues still need to be worked out.
“We hope to make by the end of this year more progress in this field,” he said.
On whether India has raised issues of nuclear safety during its discussions with Japan, he said, “Safety is one of the issues which we always discuss whenever we have discussions on civil nuclear cooperation with any country.
“And in the present atmosphere, safety is in fact probably a very high priority in our bilateral cooperation with any country. Certainly, with the Japanese, we will be discussing this at great length,” he said.
Japanese officials have affirmed that Tokyo is committed to the nuclear cooperation pact notwithstanding its strong concerns over nuclear safety.
While Japan has backed the Indo-US nuclear deal and the exemptions given to India from international technology sanctions, successive governments in Tokyo have found the going tough in garnering political support for it in the face of stiff opposition from the non-proliferation lobby in that country.
The two Prime Ministers will take stock of the India-Japan Strategic and Global Partnership and discuss how to further strengthen it. The two leaders are expected to review the entire gamut of bilateral relations including economic and defence cooperation and people-to-people ties.
On his way back from Tokyo, Singh will visit Bangkok on May 30-31 aimed at elevating bilateral relations into a “strategic partnership” but the long-awaited Free Trade Agreement is unlikely to be inked with some issues still to be sorted out.
On Wednesday, the Prime Minister will call on Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko, who will host a lunch for him. The Emperor has accepted an invitation to visit India, dates for which are being worked out by the two sides.
Singh will hold summit-level talks with the Japanese Premier the same day on the entire gamut of bilateral ties with special focus on giving a boost to cooperation in defence, economic, energy and other areas.
The Prime Minister will be highlighting greater investment opportunities in India and seek greater Japanese private sector investments. We see very good prospects for increasing Japanese investments in India,” Mathai said.
On its part, Japan is keen to showcase its high-speed rail technology Shinkansen, which they would like India to consider.
Energy cooperation is another area of promise. Japan will organise a major exhibition of energy efficient and green technologies in Delhi later this year.
Japan has recently made a breakthrough in the frozen seabed gas hydrates and their exploitation, which is of great interest to India. The two countries are already cooperating on a joint study on LNG pricing.
The two leaders will also discuss regional and international issues including Afghanistan.
They will review major projects such as the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor, the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor, and the infrastructure upgrading process in the Chennai- Bangalore corridor.
Referring to defence cooperation, Mathai said India has invited Japan to hold naval exercises in the Indian Ocean. “We are going to institutionalise the regular exercises between the Indian and Japanese navies,” he said.
The Prime Minister’s hectic schedule in Tokyo will start on Tuesday with Japanese ministers for Foreign Affairs and Economy, Trade and Industry calling on him.
Singh will also attend a business luncheon hosted by Keidanren, the Japanese business federation representing over 1,200 companies, and later address a reception jointly hosted by the Japan-India Association, Japan-India Parliamentary Friendship League and the Friendship Exchange Council.
In Bangkok, a slew of MOUs covering space, extradition, IT, education, financial intelligence units to check money laundering are expected to be inked during Singh’s visit.
Thailand is an important component of India’s Look East policy, Secretary (East) Ashok Kantha, who took over his new post on Friday after serving as India’s High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, said.
Singh’s visit reflects the desire of the two sides to elevate bilateral relations to a strategic partnership, as announced in January last year, the Thai foreign ministry said in a statement in Bangkok ahead of the visit.
Singh’s visit to Bangkok will be the first in nine years after the 2004 visit by the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Geo-politics, the trilateral highway project involving India, Thailand and Myanmar, defence, science and technology, education and culture, are some of the issues which be be discussed by Singh with his Thai counterpart Yingluck Shinawatra.
Shinawatra was the chief guest at last year’s Republic Day celebrations in New Delhi and undertook another visit in December for the ASEAN-India commemorative summit to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the India-ASEAN dialogue.
The FTA is unlikely to be firmed up with certain issues till to be resolved. India seeks a comprehensive and balanced outcome of the FTA negotiations. Trade reached the level of 9.2 billion USD in 2012-13 and there has also been a fairly impressive growth in two-way investment flows between the two countries, Kantha said.
The process to ease the consular access and visa procedure and tourism related to the Buddhist circuit are also expected to be covered in the bilateral talks. Thailand is a Buddhist majority country.
The Prime Minister returns to Delhi from Bangkok on May 31. (PTI)
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