Japan veers round to civil nuclear cooperation with India

Japan has shown flexibility in its policy on nuclear technology cooperation with India with a top leader of Japan's New Komeito Party, part of the ruling coalition, also backing a flexible approach in its in civil nuclear cooperation with India.

New Komeito Party, which was perceived to be opposed to exporting atomic technology, today backed the negotiations for a civil nuclear pact with India and said "a flexible approach" should be adopted to go for the deal.

Natsuo Yamaguchi, chief representative of the New Komeito Party, said there was a need to "accelerate" the talks between the two countries to finalise the civil nuclear deal.

Yamaguchi, who is leading a delegation of Japanese parliamentarians, met vice president Hamid Ansari and external affairs minister Salman Khurshid and discussed issues of mutual concern, including trade, commerce and investment.

"I explained (to Khurshid) that as a coalition member of the government in Japan, we have no major difference of opinion. I think the discussions need to be accelerated. A flexible approach is required to move forward on it," he told reporters.

India and Japan resumed a nuclear dialogue in September last, where the two sides discussed "all aspects" of the pact, which will pave the way for export of nuclear reactors and technology to energy-starved India.

"In the meeting, I also added that Japan is a country where people had experienced nuclear bomb disaster. We had an accident of nuclear leakage. Both these issues are major issues among the Japanese people," Yamaguchi said.

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