Prime Minister Narendra Modi hopes the visit this weekend by Japan’s premier, Shinzo Abe, will be a major step in transforming India into an economic powerhouse with Japan’s help in building bullet trains, “smart cities” and accessing nuclear technology.
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On the issue of testing, India had a “long-standing position”, said Jaishankar, noting that the global community’s exception for India in NSG was also predicated on voluntary moratorium. “The Malabar naval trilateral is does not have any designated target, and we plan to work with India and the USA for peace, security, freedom of navigation, in the South China Sea and the important energy lanes of Indo-Pacific region”, Mr. Kawamura said.
He said that by substantive agreement, it meant that both India and Japan have agreed on various provisions which were in an agreement.
Japan on Saturday committed itself to billions of dollars of investments in India, including a $12-billion loan at negligible interest for the much touted “Bullet Train” and another $12 billion for “Make in India” initiative. Reflecting the importance of the nuclear pact, Modi said it was more than just an agreement and that it was a “shining symbol” of a new level of mutual confidence and strategic partnership between the two countries towards the cause of a peaceful and secure world.
Chanda Kochhar, MD & CEO, ICICI Bank Ltd., in her address stated that India was now one of the fastest growing economies in the world. The second will allow Japan to manufacture military equipment in India. He said “strong India is for the good of Japan and strong Japan is good for India, this is my basic tenet”. They called for security cooperation between Japan, India, the US and Australia, reflecting a strategy already agreed by the USA and Japan, which is aimed at checking China’s ambitions in the South China Sea.
“Today, we have scaled new summits in our shared journey”, Mr Modi told reporters at a joint press briefing with Mr Abe. China has sparred with Japan over the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, and India has expressed concern over Chinese moves to send submarines to Sri Lanka and build a port for its archrival Pakistan. Japan’s trade with India is about 5 percent of its commerce with China, and less than a quarter of India-China trade. India and Japan share apprehensions about China’s expansionism in regional waters.
Japanese sources emphasised that the emerging military ties are not targeted at China. Japan – the only country to have suffered an atomic bombing – had been holding out for tougher safeguards from India, which hasn’t signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
However, a report in “Japan Times” quoted the Japanese government’s Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Koichi Hagiuda telling journalists in New Delhi that bilateral nuclear cooperation would stop if India conducted a nuclear test.
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He said, “No less historic is the decision to introduce high speed rail on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad sector through Shinkansen, known for speed, reliability, safety”. Technical and legal details still need to be worked out, and a final agreement would also have to be approved by Japan’s Diet. “There is no inconsistency… even though you (India) did not sign NPT”, he said.
