India and Japan to accelerate negotiations on N deal

India and Japan today agreed to "accelerate" negotiations for early conclusion of the much anticipated bilateral civil nuclear deal.
This was stated by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during a joint press conference here along with his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh.
"The two countries will accelerate negotiations for the early conclusion of the civilian nuclear agreement," Abe said.
Negotiations for the civil nuclear cooperation agreement have not made much headway since Japan was struck by Fukushima nuclear disaster in March, 2011.
While Japan has backed the Indo-US nuclear deal and the exemptions given to India from international technology sanctions, successive governments in Tokyo have found the going tough in garnering political support for it in the face of stiff opposition from the non-proliferation lobby here.

Ahead of his visit, Singh had said, "I do recognise there are problems in Japan and there are elections to the upper house which take place later this year.
"But, I do hope that we can make progress in the civil nuclear energy cooperation.