New Delhi: India and Japan on Wednesday exchanged views on developments in the areas of disarmament and non-proliferation relating to nuclear, chemical and biological domains, outer space security, non-proliferation issues, conventional weapons and export control, during the 10th round of India-Japan consultations on Disarmament, Non-Proliferation and Export Control held in Tokyo on Wednesday, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said.
The Indian delegation was led by Muanpuii Saiawi, Joint Secretary (Disarmament and International Security Affairs), MEA, while the Japanese delegation was led by Katsuro Kitagawa, Director General for Disarmament, Non-proliferation and Science Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
In 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his visit to Japan signed a civil nuclear agreement with the late former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. As per the agreement, Japan would supply fuel, equipment and technology to India, which wants more nuclear-generated electricity for its rapidly growing population. The agreement was strictly for peaceful purposes and Japan can break it if India conducts another nuclear weapons test. The last Indian test was in 1998.
It was the first time Japan signed such an agreement with a country not a member of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Japan was the only country to have suffered a nuclear attack when the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed in 1945. India, however, has always maintained its stance that the NPT is discriminatory and that it has legitimate concerns about its long-term nuclear-armed rival Pakistan.
Not only bilaterally, the Japan-India security partnership has developed over the last two decades, steadily, to a significant level. As both Japan and India have faced increasingly assertive behaviours from China, there have been ample reasons for Tokyo and Delhi to deepen security cooperation.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Fumio Kishida, Prime Minister of Japan, in May last year on the sidelines of the G-7 Summit in Hiroshima. That was their second meeting in 2023, following the visit of Prime Minister Kishida to India in March 2023. Prime Minister Modi then thanked Prime Minister Kishida for planting in Hiroshima the Bodhi sapling that Prime Minister Modi had gifted in March 2023.
