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Japan lifts sanctions |
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Japan has decided to lift all nuclear-related economic sanctions on India and Pakistan. The decision was announced on the eve of the visit of the former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, to New Delhi as a special envoy of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, on Oct. 26 to discuss Afghanistan, international terrorism and bilateral relations. Prime Minister Vajpayee himself is due to visit Tokyo in December.
Like the US economic sanctions that were waived a month ago, the Japanese move is also aimed primarily at helping Pakistan since India was not too badly affected. For, while Japan went along with the US in imposing sanctions on India, these applied only to new projects and not to the existing ones. Right through the post-Pokhran period, Japan’s assistance continued for major ongoing projects such as Delhi Mass Rapid Transport System [the Metro Rail] and the Simhadri Thermal Power Station Project Grants for humanitarian assistance such as during the Gujarat earthquake and the Pulse Polio project also remained unaffected.
Japanese aid to India, though fell to a tenth immediately after Pokhran and then to sixth of that the next year, close to half of all global aid to India comes from Japan. Assistance pledged by Japan fell from around 135 billion yen or $1.1 billion annually from 1994 to 1997 to just 13 billion yen or $106 million in 1998 and 2 billion yen in 1999. For Pakistan, the Japanese move could be a life saver. It comes nearly a week after Pakistan President Musharraf called Koizumi, requesting him to lift the sanctions. His plea was that Pakistan needed economic aid to offset the negative economic impact of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the US. Musharraf reportedly called for cancellation of debts. In the summer, his Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar had visited Tokyo and talked of the sanctions so the $500 million aid package could be restarted to oil the economy. This year, Japanese help to Pakistan was limited to about 20 billion yen or $160 million. It decided last month to provide $40 million to Pakistan to help it assist the US-led “war on terrorism”.
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