PTI PhotoIndia has agreed to link nuclear testing with termination of the civilian nuclear agreement that it signed with Japan on Friday. This has been done through a separate two-page “note on views and understanding” so that Japan could make an exception for India – the deal was the first Japan had signed with a non-NPT signatory. The move marks a significant departure in India’s nuclear diplomacy and there is apprehension that it may open the floodgates for renegotiation with other countries, with whom Delhi has signed nuclear pacts in the past. This substantive shift in India’s nuclear diplomacy comes eight years after India signed the 123 agreement with the US, a template it has stuck to ever since. This is expected to facilitate the passage of the nuclear agreement in the Japanese parliament,” a government source said.

Source: Indian Express November 12, 2016 22:47 UTC