In a forward-looking approach on India’s request for support on relaxing the Nuclear Suppliers’ Group (NSG) guidelines to allow India to enter international nuclear market, Japan on Wednesday said it understood the country’s need to address its energy demands.
“Japan is certainly aware of strategic importance of India. We also understand its (India) energy demands while addressing global warming issues by using nuclear energy,” Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said here on Wednesday at a joint press conference with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the end of their summit discussions. 
For Abe, supporting India’s case on the nuclear issue is a tricky matter since he has to also take into account his country’s deep concerns about nuclear weapons’ proliferation. But he indicated that when India finalises the proposed safeguards agreement with the IAEA, that step could pave way to satisfy domestic concerns at home and thus support India in the NSG.
Japan attached great importance to the goal of nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament, Abe said at the joint press conference, adding that Tokyo would closely examine India’s safeguards agreement with the IAEA when it was ready.
“It is essential for India to complete IAEA safeguards agreement in order to address the Japanese concerns. Japan would address the matter before NSG after closely studying the agreement,” he said. 
The subject also figured in a Joint Statement signed by the two leaders that spelt out in detail the “Roadmap for New Dimensions to Strategic and Global Partnership between India and Japan”. 
“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. They looked forward to constructive deliberations at the relevant international fora (meaning NSG) with respect to the international civil nuclear cooperation framework under appropriate IAEA safeguards with India,” the para on civil nuclear energy cooperation stated.
In the broader framework of strengthening strategic and global partnership, the two leaders agreed to step up defence and strategic cooperation.
They agreed that the quadrilateral dialogue involving two other countries – the US and Australia – was “useful” and should be continued. Intensification of economic and trade ties would help this process, the joint statement indicated. The two leaders set a target to increasing the two-way trade volume to US$ 20 billion by 2010 as against US$ 10 billion at present. 
Both the leaders expressed confidence that the modalities of implementing the two ambitious collaborative infrastructure projects – Delhi-Mumbai, Delhi-Kolkata freight corridor and Delhi-Mumbai industrial corridor – would be finalised soon.
They agreed to set up a dedicated fund for the purpose and investments would come from Japanese investors. Japan also evinced interest in funding the setting up of a new IIT. 
Apart from the roadmap document, the two leaders also signed another document on bilateral cooperation on enhancement of cooperation on environmental protection and energy security.