Japan's Nuclear Pacts with Turkey, UAE Seen Taking Effect

Tokyo, Oct. 10 (Jiji Press)--Pacts that will enable Japan to export nuclear power plants to Turkey and the United Arab Emirates are now expected to go into effect as New Komeito, a Japanese ruling coalition party, has taken a necessary step. The Policy Research Council of New Komeito, the junior partner of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, approved draft bills for the ratification of the bilateral pacts at its meeting on Thursday. The LDP is scheduled to complete its procedures to endorse them on Friday. The pacts are expected to be approved at an extraordinary Diet session, to be convened on Tuesday, for their effectuation. The pacts were signed when Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited Turkey and the UAE in May this year. The Abe government is working to promote nuclear plant exports to shore up the Japanese economy. A nuclear cooperation pact calls for peaceful use of nuclear energy and nuclear nonproliferation. At parliamentary meetings in December 2011, shortly after the nuclear accident at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s <9501>Fukushima No. 1 plant, New Komeito, which was an opposition party at the time, voted against bills to ratify Japan's nuclear cooperation pacts with Russia, South Korea, Jordan and Vietnam because the Japanese government had yet to finish its work to review the country's nuclear policy. This time, however, the party decided to approve the pacts with Turkey and the UAE since the Nuclear Regulation Authority has set new regulatory standards. Japan currently has nuclear cooperation pacts with 11 countries, including the United States, Britain and China, and one international organization. It is negotiating similar pacts with India, and South Africa. END