FTA on top of agenda during Japan PM’s Delhi visit

A free trade agreement, civil nuclear cooperation and security will dominate the talks between Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hayatoma, who arrives here today on an official visit, and his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh.
The two countries had been in talks for an FTA for quite some time and Hayatoma's visit is expected to give a political push to the negotiations for the accord.
Japan is the sixth largest investor in India with three billion dollars in investments and is involved in some of the biggest infrastructure projects, including a freight corridor.
The number of Japanese companies has doubled in the last three years and the two-way trade volume moved up to 13 billion dollars.
During Hayatoma's visit, India is likely to prod Japan to remove the curbs on trade in high and sensitive technology and the absence of a bilateral civil nuclear agreement is impeding cooperation in this area, Indian officials point out.
Japanese companies are believed to be keen in doing civilian nuclear commerce with India which has an excellent track record in non-proliferation and two leading American companies Westinghouse and General Electric have major stakes in Japanese firms Hitachi and Toshiba in nuclear power sector.