Turkey is to terminate the exclusivity of its talks with Japan at the end of July on building a nuclear power plant, news reports said Tuesday, dpa reported.
Turkish government officials expressed concern as to whether Japan would provide assistance to the project after Prime Minister Naoto Kan said in mid-July that the country should work toward eliminating nuclear energy, the Jiji Press agency reported citing unnamed sources.
Officials from Japan's Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry travelled to Turkey to ask the country to reconsider and continue to conduct the negotiations on an exclusive basis, Jiji said.
Turkey, an earthquake-prone country like Japan, aims to build the plant around 2018, and Toshiba Corp was seeking to win the order while the Japanese government proposed financial assistance and support for planning and personnel training, Jiji said.
The negotiations have been effectively suspended since the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, which has leaked radiation since it was hit by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
Turkey told the Japanese government recently that after Monday, its nuclear plant negotiations would become nonexclusive and involve other nations because the course of Japan's nuclear energy policy was unclear, Jiji said.