TOKYO: Japan warmed India that “unless it signs the nuclear non- “proliferation treaty (NPT) Tokyo May be forced to suspend its Official Development Assistance (ODA) program to India.
In multilateral and bilateral terms, this comes to almost a billion dollars a year, The Government’s Warning came during the course Of a briefing by Japanese officials On the agenda for talks with Indian Prime Minister P.V Narasimha Rao, who arrives in Tokyo on June 22.
Japanese officials involved with the setting up of the agenda told newspapers in Tokyo that Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa will urge India to sign the NPT. He will make the request at the next talks with Narasimha Rao.
Rao will arrive on a five-day Visit to Japan to mark the 40th anniversary of the setting up of diplomatic relations between India and Japan, the officials said. Miyazawa will press Rao to make a decision on an NPT accession in view of the demise of the Soviet Union and other political changes in countries neighboring India.
Issuing a clear-cut warning to India, Japanese officials recounted Japan’s support on issues of nuclear non-proliferation, pointing Out that at the peak of the Cold War, Japan had repeatedly urged both the US and the USSR to slash their nuclear arsenals.
Even now, during contracts with the former Soviet States, Japan continually presses for further nuclear disarmament as a condition for stepped up Japanese aid. Japan’s aid to Russia, for instance, has a substantial element of nuclear disarmament requirement.
Japanese officials reiterated that Japan is seeking the warmest possible relations with India, a fact which has been borne out by ‘Tokyo’s very substantial unilateral and bilateral aid to India. But the Tokyo Government believes that India has not done enough in the field of nuclear non-proliferation with the first step being signing the NPT.
In terms which are unusually candid by Japanese standards, the message is that India cannot count on Japan’s sizeable aid program, unless it decided to sign the NPT or is able to work something out which assures Tokyo of India’s sincerity on the NPT issue.
A part from the nuclear issue, the two leaders are also expected to have discussions on Russia, China, Cambodia and Asia-Pacific nations, Japan-India economic cooperation and cultural exchanges, and the Munich summit of the group of seven major industrializations in July.
Article extracted from this publication >> July 3, 1992
