Japan and India held a key strategic dialogue on Saturday and discussed a range of issues, including a civilian nuclear cooperation deal between the countries. "Earlier today, we had a productive exchange of ideas on how to further strengthen the many dimensions of the India-Japan strategic and global partnership," dpa quoted Indian Foreign Minister SM Krishna as telling reporters at a briefing with his Japanese counterpart Katsuya Okada. "We discussed ways of further consolidating the excellent political, economic, security and people-to-people relations that India and Japan enjoy," he said. Krishna and Okada also held talks on a crucial nuclear deal, which is to allow Japan to export nuclear power generation technology and equipment to India. "We agreed that the negotiations will continue quickly and that we will jointly work towards a good agreement which will result in a win-win situation for both India and Japan. We do not intend fixing a time-line for the conclusion of such an agreement," Krishna said. Okada said he appreciated efforts made by India toward nuclear non-proliferation but warned that Tokyo would suspend any bilateral atomic cooperation were Delhi to conduct a military nuclear test. "Japan will have no option but to suspend our cooperation," he said. Since launching negotiations on the pact in June, India and Japan have held two rounds of talks on the proposed deal, which is a particularly sensitive issue for Japan. Survivors of the US atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki have opposed the deal as India has developed nuclear arms without signing the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The two sides also discussed economic cooperation, including a multi-billion-dollar Japanese loan for the Delhi-Mumbai industrial corridor linking northern and western India. Japan is the sixth-largest foreign investor in India and two-way trade in 2009 was worth more than 12 billion dollars. The discussions also aimed at firming up the agenda for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's trip to Tokyo later this year. India and Japan also discussed regional and global issues such as climate change as well as reforms in the United Nations. Okada, who arrived in Delhi Saturday morning, is scheduled to conclude his India tour on Sunday. He is due to meet the Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh on Sunday afternoon before flying to Thailand where is scheduled to hold meetings on Monday.
