(CNN) -- The leaders of France and Japan vowed Thursday to work to bolster international safety standards for nuclear power plants, making the subject a prime topic at a pair of upcoming international summits.
At the request of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who visited Tokyo on Thursday, Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said he would explain the situation at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in the context of overall safety during the G8 summit in May in Deuville, France, and again at November's G-20 summit in Cannes, France.
"The world is one community," said Sarkozy. "So what happens in one place affects other places as well. This is an issue of global safety."
Kan said he concurred with the French president, noting he would be willing to detail Japan's challenges at the embattled plant -- where at least four of the six reactors suffered significant damage, leading to the release of radiation into the air, soil and water -- at the upcoming global meetings. A discussion and possible adoption of international nuclear safety standards, he added, would be sensible and mutually beneficial.
"We need to accurately convey our lessons from this experience," Kan said. "The safety criteria should be taken up in these meetings."
The French president, who traveled to Japan in his capacity as current head of the G8 group that also includes Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States, said that there was a lack of clear, universal guidelines for nuclear safety.
"An independent body ... should establish international safety standards," he said.
Still, Kan said that his government's first priority, beyond addressing the humanitarian and reconstruction needs wrought by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, is resolving the nuclear crisis without a further widespread release of radiation.
After that, he said, Japan will analyze and assess its energy policy -- including the role that nuclear power will and should play. The initial goal in this assessment, according to Kan, will be maximizing safety at its existing nuclear facilities.
"We must position nuclear power plants to become safer," he said, "so that such an accident will never happen again."
Sarkozy acknowledged Japan's crisis has affected France's take on nuclear energy. He promised that inspectors there will expeditiously check out French nuclear plants to make sure they are safe.
"If they do not meet the (safety) criteria, we will be closing down the plants," the president said.
As to the immediate crisis, Sarkozy said that France would offer a special robot to work in contaminated areas in Japan as well as offer up experts and insight to help Japan navigate the current crisis.
France is one of several nations to offer up such assistance. The United States, for one, has made numerous contributions, including dispatching a 140-member team of troops specializing in detecting, medical treating and decontaminating radioactive material.
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