Japan Press Weekly

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2014 August 27 - September 2 [POLITICS]

Abe gov’t to support India’s nuclear development

Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met in Tokyo on September 1, agreeing to accelerate negotiations toward concluding a bilateral nuclear power agreement.

This is following a meeting in May last year in which Abe and then Indian PM Manmohan Singh agreed to resume talks, which were suspended after the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.

India, one of the nuclear weapons states, is a non-NPT member. Data released by Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) show that the nation possesses between 90 and 110 nuclear warheads as of January 2014.

If India builds atomic power plants by using Japanese technology and starts their operations, the country will be able to produce weapons-grade plutonium with that technology. This means that Japan would in effect be helping India to further develop nuclear weapons.

The Fukushima crisis has yet to be brought under control and its causes are still unknown. The Abe administration should make every effort to bring the crisis to an end instead of finding a new market for Japan’s nuclear technology.

Past related article:
> Abe cabinet helps to export Japan’s nuclear power technology abroad [May 13, 2013]