Japan: N-pact differences get narrowed

As India and Japan further consolidate their already strong bilateral ties during the ongoing visit of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Tokyo said on Sunday that the differences it has with New Delhi over the proposed civil nuclear pact have been “narrowed down”.

This was indicated by Kuni Sato, director-general for press and public diplomacy in Japan’s foreign ministry, in a statement here. Asked about the proposed nuclear agreement, which India and Japan have been negotiating for long, Ms Sato said: “The differences between the two governments have been narrowed down.”
While Ms Sato refused to say what the differences were between the two sides, or specify any timeframe for the signing of the agreement, she said the two sides were “seriously engaged” in discussions.
On the security dialogue the two nations decided to start at the level of national security advisers, at Saturday’s annual summit meeting, Ms Sato said among other things it would probably focus on specific projects negotiated between India and Japan. This was in response to a question on whether the proposed nuclear agreement and negotiations for the purchase of US-2 amphibian vessels from Japan by India would figure in the security talks.
Asked if the two NSAs would discuss China, the dispute over the South China Sea and North Korea, Ms Sato replied: “I would say so. Yes, because it is a fact China has been building up (military capabilities) and not necessarily with enough transparency.”
In a clear indication of the increasing convergence of strategic and security interests, Ms Sato noted that the director-general of Japan’s recently-created National Security Council, Shotaro Yachi, was a member of Mr Abe’s delegation in India.