Japan, a key member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), was non-committal on whether it would support India's case at the 45-nation grouping even as it asked New Delhi to sign the NPT and CTBT.After his talks with External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee who sought Japan's support, Foreign Minister Masshiko Koumura said Tokyo understands India's energy needs but wants to be sure that Indo-US nuclear deal will not undermine non-proliferation efforts.Mukherjee sought to allay the concerns, saying the Indo-US nuclear deal is ‘limited to peaceful energy programme’ and asserted that New Delhi has an impeccable record on the non-proliferation front despite not being a signatory to the NPT."We seek cooperation of the international community. We are aware of Japan's sensitivity. In view of that I reiterated our firm commitment to total disarmament and strict adherence to conditions of non-proliferation as enshrined in various treaties," Mukherjee said at a joint press conference with Koumura.He said though India is not a signatory to NPT or any other pact, India fulfills ‘all major conditionalities’ required for non-proliferation.Koumura, while noting that Japan is the only one to have suffered an atomic bomb, said his country needs to be sure that the Indo-US nuclear deal is ‘satisfactory’ in the sense that it will further strengthen disarmament and not undermine it.He said Japan would ‘join the discussions which will be held in future’, apparently referring to the August 21-22 meeting of NSG to consider waiver for India."Japan is leading international efforts for nuclear disarmament. From this perspective, we need to be satisfied that the Indo-US civil nuclear cooperation initiative will not undermine disarmament," Koumura said. Notwithstanding its non-committal attitude, Japan joined consensus to support the India-specific safeguards agreement at the IAEA Board of Governors last week, for which Mukherjee thanked Tokyo. At the same time, the Japanese Foreign Minister said India should sign the NPT and CTBT. "Japan has been requesting India to sign the NPT and ratify the CTBT. In this there is no change in our position and we will continue to ask that," Koumura said at the joint press meet. India has refused to sign the NPT, saying that it is flawed. On the Indo-US nuclear deal, he said Japan has been given to understand that it is "significant" and will have "benefits of peaceful nuclear energy in the sense that it will reduce emissions." While maintaining that the Indo-US nuclear deal was only for peaceful uses, Mukherjee said it would enable India to have nuclear trade with international community besides having access to nuclear technology that has been denied so far. Besides the nuclear issue, the two leaders also discussed matters related to climate change and proposed Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA). On the climate change, the two sides did not have a meeting point. Koumura said India should join the post-Kyoto 2012 framework that provides for commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by a half by 2050. Mukherjee disfavoured fixing of targets of reduction, saying it would affect the growth. The External Affairs Minister insisted on differential responsibility commensurate to an individual country's emissions. On CEPA, the Japanese Foreign Minister indicated that there were differences as he said the two countries needed to ‘show flexibility’ in negotiations so that it could be firmed up by the time Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visits Tokyo later in 2008.
