Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe shake hands before their meeting in New Delhi on Saturday. Abe said corporate profitability had increased, unemployment was at the lowest and the wage hike was the best in the years.
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Modi and Abe, both right-wing nationalists, have forged an unusually close relationship since the Indian leader came to power a year ago, in part to counter China’s growing influence.
Modi said he knew the significance of the civil nuclear agreement for Japan and assured that India will honour its shared commitments.
“Prime Minister Modi’s economic policies are like Shinkansen – high speed, safe and reliable while carrying many people along”, the Japanese premier said in a reference to the Japanese bullet train.
Abe told a conference of Indian business leaders that the pace of India’s economic reforms had picked up under Modi’s government.
“We understand the concept of Make in India in our country, but we are proud to say that in Japan, the Make in India movement is going on”.
“It will become an engine of economic transformation in India”, he said.
Japan’s possible sale of US-2 amphibious aircraft to India would be Tokyo’s first major military hardware transfer since lifting a postwar ban on the export of defense equipment in 2014.
Terming defence pacts as “decisive steps in our security cooperation”, Modi said they will deepen the defence relations and promote defence manufacturing in India.
Terming as “historic’ the decision to introduce high speed trains on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad sector through the Japan’s Shinkansen, Modi said India greatly appreciates Abe’s extraordinary package of over $12 billion and technical assistance, on very easy terms, for the project”.
“It is clear that India is a land of possibilities”, he added.
“We deeply value our special strategic and global partnership. We have made enormous progress in economic cooperation as also in our regional partnership and security cooperation”, PM Modi said after signing the deal.
Both PM Modi and PM Abe said the civil nuclear deal was not just about commerce and clean energy but also a sign of mutual confidence and partnership for a secure world.
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“India will extend visa-on-arrival to Japanese citizens including for business objective from March 2016”.
