TOKYO, March 22: Japan’s foreign minister voiced concern on Wednesday that a landmark nuclear deal between India and the United States set a ‘double standard’ that could hurt diplomacy over Iran and North Korea. The comments by outspoken Foreign Minister Taro Aso were at odds with earlier statements by Japan, a staunch US ally which has been seeking closer ties with India.

“It is good that inspectors can get in there,” Aso said of Indian civilian nuclear reactors.

“But our largest concern is that the current order becomes obsolete,” he said in reference to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Aso told a parliamentary panel on diplomacy and national defence that he had voiced his concerns to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

He said he told Washington ‘to take into consideration not having a negative influence on Iran and North Korea’, which are in the midst of standoffs over their nuclear ambitions.

“I also told Rice the deal would be criticized for sure as being a double standard,” Aso said, as quoted by public broadcaster NHK.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe, the government spokesman, had earlier reacted positively to the nuclear deal. He said India, unlike North Korea, ‘shares the values of freedom, democracy, basic human rights and the rule of law’.

—AFP