NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be heading to Japan next week, his second visit in two years. Both countries would be bolstering defence ties to balance China and a civil nuclear agreement will be also be on the agenda.
Prime Minister Modi will be in Japan on 11-12 November and will have an audience with Emperor of Japan and hold the Annual Summit meeting with his Japanese counterpart Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The civil nuclear agreement that has been hanging fire owing to technical and legal issues is likely to be inked during the visit.
Sources have indicated that since the last visit of Prime Minister Modi the nuclear deal negotiations have progressed well and the agreement was in final stages. This would be a breakthrough agreement as Japan, following the nuclear tests by India in 1998 and New Delhi’s reluctance to sign the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty (NPT), had refrained from carrying out nuclear trade with India.
The Indo-US nuclear agreement paved way for more such agreements with other countries. The Indo-Japan civil nuclear deal, if inked will be first of its sort for the Island Country that has never signed a nuclear deal with a non-NPT signatory country.
During Prime Minister Modi’s visit to Japan in 2014 the two countries had elevated their ties to a ‘Special Strategic and Global Partnership’ and had signed two key security agreements – Japan-India Agreement on Defence equipment and technology transfer and the Agreement Concerning the Security Measures for the Protection of Classified Military Information.
Building up on these pacts the two countries are likely to strengthen their defence ties especially maritime cooperation. The visit comes in the backdrop of India-China relations strained from New Delhi’s worsening ties with its neighbor in the West. China’s unstinted support for Pakistan has been a challenge to India and Beijing’s aggressive posturing in East China Sea and South China Sea has been disconcerting for Tokyo.