Japan, UAE sign nuclear cooperation agreement

Japan and the United Arab Emirates have signed a nuclear cooperation agreement that will open the door to Japan providing nuclear power plant technology to the UAE.

It’s the first bilateral nuclear agreement signed by Japan since the tsunami-triggered meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant in Mar. 2011, Kyodo News International noted.

The deal was announced after talks today in Dubai between Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and United Arab Emirates Vice President and Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.

"Japan can contribute to UAE energy supplies by means of nuclear energy conservation and renewable energy," Abe said in Japanese, according to Agence France-Presse.

The UAE, Japan’s eighth-largest trading partner, has said it wants nuclear energy to provide up to a quarter of its electricity needs, according to Agence France-Presse.

The country is building two nuclear power plants in partnership with a South Korean consortium that will start generating electricity in 2017. Two more nuclear power plants are slated to be operational by 2020.

Abe’s stop in the UAE is part of a regional tour to promote Japanese technologies, especially nuclear power plant technology, overseas. The Japanese prime minister has already visited Russia and Saudi Arabia and will visit Turkey before returning home.

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Japan has nuclear agreements with 11 other countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom, plus the European Atomic Community, Kyodo News International reported.