India stands firm to Japan’s CTBT push

India on Tuesday resisted Japan's push towards ratifying the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), with New Delhi sticking to its stated position on nuclear non-proliferation.

India on Tuesday resisted Japan's push towards ratifying the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), with New Delhi sticking to its stated position on nuclear non-proliferation.

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India put the onus on China and the US for the ratification of the CTBT, which New Delhi finds discriminatory. The two countries are yet to approve the pact intended to prohibit all nuclear weapon test explosions.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made a strong case for the nuclear trade with Tokyo as his Japanese counterpart Yukio Hatoyama sounded positive on civil nuclear cooperation but remained cautious on relaxing high-technology trade.

"We had fairly extensive discussions on civil nuclear energy. I explained to the prime minister the circumstances under which India took the nuclear weapon route," Singh said.

He was referring to the 1998 nuclear tests that invited sanctions from many Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) countries, including Japan, the only country to have borne the brunt of nuclear strikes.

Referring to the waiver that India had got from the NSG last year, Singh said India would stick to its "unilateral and voluntary moratorium on explosive nuclear testing".

With domestic scenario playing on his mind on the issue of non-proliferation, including the socialists in his government, Hatoyama after his annual summit meeting with Singh, stressed that the two sides had "differences" over the CTBT and Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

"I expressed the hope that… India will sign and ratify the (CTBT) treaty. In response, Prime Minister Singh said should the US and China ratify the CTBT, a new situation will emerge. I believe he has stated it as a matter of fact. We firmly have to engage in these endeavours," Hatoyama said.

He almost made the high-technology trade conditional to India's effort in a speedy conclusion of the Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty that proposes to prohibit further production of weapon-grade uranium and plutonium.

India needed to assure Japan that its high-tech imports would not be diverted for weapons or to third countries, he said, taking note of the "enormous" scope in the area.

India is the only country Japan has an annual summit meeting with.