By signing the agreement for cooperation in the peaceful uses of Nuclear energy between two reliable partners India and Japan, India is now the first non-member of the non-proliferation treaty (NPT) to have signed such a deal with Japan. The move marks a significant departure in India’s nuclear diplomacy. Japan is already a victim of Nuclear disaster. According to the analysts, Japan is the only country to have suffered a nuclear attack has special sensitivities that India may need to make an exception for. Despite India’s insistence on nuclear sovereignty India, the globe’s largest democracy, and Japan, Asia’s second largest democracy, share common values. The new agreement not only provides for bilateral cooperation in the field of nuclear energy but it also provides for cooperation in satellite navigation, planetary exploration and space industry promotion. This initiative will also make it more difficult for China to keep India out of the NSG club because terms of the civil nuclear deal with Japan, de facto brings India within the NPT framework. Our country can extend its arms of cooperation to medicine, health care, various branches of science and technology with the Japanese neighbours.
Vinod C. Dixit
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
