By IANS
New Delhi : Japan, a key member of the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), will extend its full support when negotiations begin at the forum on the resumption of nuclear supplies to India, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said here Wednesday.
“When the matter comes up at NSG, we will have the support of Japan,” said a confident Singh, at a joint press briefing along with his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe after delegation level talks at Hyderabad House here.
“There is some turbulence now but I am confident we should be able to overcome it,” Manmohan Singh said when asked how he proposed to push ahead the India-US civilian nuclear agreement in the backdrop of the strong political opposition that even threatens the continuance of his nearly 40-month-old government.
“As someone said, when winter comes, can spring be far behind.”
Even in the joint statement issued by the two leaders a tacit support from Tokyo for India’s peaceful nuclear energy programme was evident.
“The two leaders shared the view that nuclear energy can play an important role as a safe, sustainable and non-polluting source of energy in meeting the rising global demand for energy,” the statement said.
“They looked forward to constructive deliberations at the relevant international fora with respect to the international civil nuclear cooperation framework under appropriate IAEA safeguards with India.”
Abe is on a three-day visit to India since Tuesday and flies to Kolkata before concluding the second leg of his three-nation tour. He arrived here from Indonesia and goes to Malaysia Friday.
Earlier, Japan’s foreign ministry spokesman Mitsuo Sakaba told reporters that his country was “carefully examining” the Indo-US civil nuclear deal and that Tokyo’s “position on this matter has been one of non-decision till now”.
Japan’s indecision, he said, was mainly on account of the fact that India has not signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
“That (not signing the treaty) is a unique position. So it is a sensitive aspect that we have to analyse. Therefore we have taken no stand so far,” Sakaba said. “But India has a good track record without signing the NPT,” he added.
“We are carefully examining it. Our position on this matter has been one of non-decision till now,” he said, referring to the nuclear deal that seeks to open up the doors for nuclear commerce for India after a gap of three decades.
“I hope you understand the sensitivity of the nuclear issue because of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. That is why we are examining the bilateral agreement carefully,” he said.
Japan is emotive over the nuclear issue following the horrors of the two atomic bombs that Allied Forces dropped on these small towns during the Second World War that killed tens of thousands of people.