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WORLD NEWSSaturday 12 December 2015
Bullet train, nuclear deal top Japan’s Abe agenda in India
NIRMALA GEORGE Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, left, is greeted by Indian minister of state for finance, sity.
Associated Press “While it’s unlikely a civil
NEW DELHI (AP) — Prime Jayant Sinha, as he arrives in New Delhi, India, Friday, Dec. 11, 2015. Abe is on a three-day visit nuclear deal will be signed
Minister Narendra Modi during this visit, the two
hopes the visit this week- to India. (AP Photo/Saurabh Das) sides will air their concerns.
end by Shinzo Abe will be That could be construed as
a major step in transform- ing rail cars, tracks and op- to upgrade India’s creak- signing a civil nuclear progress,” she said.
ing India into an economic erating systems. ing infrastructure. agreement with India, be- In 1998, when India con-
powerhouse with Japan’s Other major priorities dur- As India tries to balance cause New Delhi has not ducted its nuclear tests,
help in building bullet trains, ing Prime Minister Abe’s its economic growth with signed the Nuclear Non- Japan imposed economic
“smart cities” and access- three-day visit include dis- sustainable development, proliferation Treaty. sanctions and cut off finan-
ing nuclear technology. cussions on a civil nuclear New Delhi is keen to in- “Tokyo will want some kind cial aid to India. The sanc-
India and Japan are set agreement, military pur- crease its use of nuclear of commitment from India tions were lifted in 2001
to sign a $15 billion agree- chases for India’s armed power but the two sides that it will not conduct a and relations have since
ment for a high-speed train forces and Japanese aid are still some distance nuclear test. But India will improved significantly.
linking the Indian finan- away from a nuclear deal. have concerns about its India has been trying to
cial hub of Mumbai with Analysts said that Japan, strategic autonomy being upgrade its military equip-
Ahmadabad, the com- which has long been seen curbed if it agrees to con- ment and a potential de-
mercial capital of Modi’s as a pacifist nation and a ditionalities,” said Lalima fense agreement to sell
home state, Gujarat. The firm supporter of nuclear Varma, professor of Japa- US-2 amphibious aircraft to
train would cut travel time nonproliferation, will have nese studies at New Delhi’s India could turn out to be
on the 505 kilometer (315 strong reservations about Jawaharlal Nehru Univer- Japan’s first major military
mile) route from eight hours sale after it lifted a postwar
to two. ban on the export of de-
For Japan, still smarting fense equipment in 2014.
from losing out to Chi- Japan’s navy uses the US-2
na over a similar agree- aircraft for maritime surveil-
ment in Indonesia, firming lance and search and res-
up the Indian deal was cue operations.
crucial. Tokyo has prom- The two countries are also
ised technical and finan- likely to sign an agreement
cial support to New Delhi allowing the transfer of de-
for the project, including a fense technology and co-
low-interest 50-year Japa- production of arms and
nese loan. military equipment.
The deal would benefit Abe and Modi are ex-
Japanese companies with pected to explore ways
contracts for manufactur- to boost their surprisingly
low trade. Analysts say de-
spite a 15 percent annual
rate of increase in two-way
trade, India accounts for
only 1.2 percent of Japan’s
total trade, and Japan for
2 percent of India’s.q
Spanish officer killed in Kabul bomb attack
AMIR SHAH but three or four others killed.
Associated Press were hiding in the guest- The Taliban claimed re-
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — house, deputy Kabul po- sponsibility for the initial
A car bomb explosion that lice chief Gul Agha Rouani massive explosion that
was claimed by the Taliban said. He said three Span- shook buildings in the area
hit a diplomatic area of iards were rescued and Friday, with spokesman
central Kabul on Friday, kill- there were no other for- Zabiullah Mujahid saying
ing a Spanish police officer eigners remaining in the it was carried out by a sui-
and wounding seven civil- building. cide bomber.
ians. The area was rocked It was not clear if the guest- The explosion left two hous-
by at least five more explo- house belonged to the es in flames, said Habibull-
sions and gunfire overnight Spanish Embassy. ha, a police official who
as security forces tried to Spanish Prime Minister Mari- like many Afghans goes
flush out Taliban attackers. ano Rajoy said a Spanish by one name. “It’s pos-
Afghan Deputy Interior police officer was killed, sible the attackers are hid-
Minister Mohammad Ayub after saying earlier that the ing. We’ve blocked all the
Salangi said the car bomb attack happened near streets and are searching,”
struck near a foreign guest- the Spanish Embassy but he said.
house in Shir Pur, an area did not target it. Afghan Shir Pur resident Moham-
with embassies and other Interior Ministry spokesman mad Zaman said the ex-
diplomatic buildings seen Sediq Sediqqi said seven plosion, which sent a giant
as one of the safer parts of civilians were wounded cloud of smoke into the sky,
the Afghan capital. and confirmed that a for- was so powerful it broke his
Two attackers were killed eign security guard was glasses.q
