It is good to strengthen ties with Japan

The visit of Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama to India will strengthen the bilateral relations between the two. But rightly resisting Japan’s push for signing Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), India has made it clear that the onus of taking the lead in this regard lies with the US and China which are yet to ratify the pact. After his talks with Japanese counterpart Yukio Hatoyama during which non-proliferation and civil nuclear issues were discussed, Prime Minister Minister Manmohan Singh has rightly said that India is deeply interested in working with Japan and other “like-minded” countries for “the cause of universal, verifiable and non-discriminatory disarmament.” As Japan is the most vocal country to halt the race of amassing nuclear weapons in the world, it wants India to sign Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) but during the talks with Yukio Hatoyama, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has made it clear that India can not consider it unless the US and China ratify the CTBT. Though so far India rejected any suggestion to sign CTBT, it has this time soften it stand a little. Apart from Japan's endeavour to establish peaceful world order, India has always remained to be in forefront to establish a nuclear free world. It has already unilaterally declared moratorium on nuclear tests. Japan continues to seek cooperation from India for “total elimination of nuclear weapons. The Japanese Prime Minister remains non-committal on civil nuclear cooperation with India although he observed that it would be an important agenda for future.As CTBT and NPT are discriminatory, it has always rejected out of hand to sign it.India is also the first country in the world to declare no first use of nuclear weapons after undertaking the nuclear tests and becoming the responsible nuclear power. India has a very good relations with Japan and if the two countries come closer to each other, it will be of great help in establishing peace and achieving development in Asia. Japan is a very important country in Asia and so is India. Japan can also help a great deal in India becoming the world economic power. With improved techonology in several field, Japan has also a lot of avenues to invest in India. It is a welcome sign that Japan has relaxed Hi-tech trade curb on India. Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hayotama’s remarks that the atmosphere in India is not very conducive to multi-nationals to invest here must be taken seriously by the government of India and work hard to build up atmosphere to attract investment. As Japan finds its Buddhist root in India, it can be its natural allies.