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JYOTI MALHOTRA
NEW DELHI, NOV 9: External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh is going on a three-day visit to Japan from November 23, marking what is possibly the end of a chapter of open hostility that began when India went nuclear last May.
Singh's visit to Tokyo the first by an Indian External Affairs Minister in four years is significant because both sides seem to have finally hammered out some sort of an understanding on security-strategic issues, such as the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and India's nuclear doctrine, that created a major divide when New Delhi went nuclear and impacted seriously on the bilateral relationship thereafter.
The invitation to Singh to visit Tokyo has been made a few times in the last 18 months, most recently by Japan's Secretary for Foreign Affairs Yamamoto in late October. Interestingly, it comes hot on the heels of the ninth round of the ``strategic dialogue'' between Singh and US Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott on November 16-17 in London.
But Singh's journey to Tokyo willalso take him via Hong Kong on November 22, where he is likely to meet senior officials of China's Special Administrative Region.
Tokyo's hard line on nuclear issues is said to be a result of it having been a victim of the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. New Delhi has on more than one occasion said it `understands' the `criticism', and attempted to explain to Tokyo the circumstance of living in a region surrounded by nuclear weapons.
Foreign policy analysts have also pointed out another dichotomy: Japan, like neighbouring Australia and New Zealand, can afford to take the high moral ground because it is protected by the nuclear umbrella of the US.
Tokyo, nevertheless, shut off its billion yen annual aid to India when the nuclear tests took place, promising to revive the assistance when New Delhi took steps to make the world a safer place such as sign the CTBT.
But with the treaty ratification having been effectively killed by none other than US lawmakers recently, Japan is saidto have also now softened its own position. One indication that it had climbed down came when Secretary Yamamoto renewed the invitation to Singh to visit Tokyo last month. Earlier, the invitation was conditional to the fact of India signing the CTBT.
But with New Delhi making it clear to the US that it is no hurry to sign up unless Washington is also prepared to make concessions on a range of items from access to high technology to an open mind on economic investment the signals to Tokyo have been palpable.
New Delhi has been considerably upset over the hard line Japan has taken not only bilaterally (after the nuclear tests), but also at the fact that Tokyo has campaigned internationally to put India in the dock.
The G-8 Task Force on South Asia was formed with Japan and the US at the forefront last year, and at its meetings Tokyo has led with the criticism ofIndia. The bilateral hostility deepened during the Kargil conflict, when even after a whole month of war and despite the fact that the Westernworld had been calling upon Pakistan to withdraw from the LoC, Japan refused to acknowledge that the Pakistani Army was supporting the `mujahideen' at the frontline.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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