Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited India and held talks with his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, signing a joint statement in which both countries pledged to cooperate in such areas as nuclear power plants, high-speed railways and security.
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With the visit of Japanese PM Shinzo Abe, India and Japan have taken their bilateral relations to a new height.
The bullet train network will link the India’s financial hub Mumbai with Ahmedabad, the capital of Modi’s home state, Gujarat.
The new bullet train will slash journey times between the Indian cities of Mumbai and Ahmedabad, reportedly from eight hours to about two hours.
The annual India-Japan summit also saw Modi and Abe agreeing to step up security and defence cooperation, and inking two agreements, which would pave the way for transfer of defence equipment and technology between the two nations.
“This is a shining symbol of a new level of mutual confidence and strategic partnership in the cause of a peaceful and secure world”, Modi said, adding the pact envisaged on nuclear energy cooperation would extend beyond commerce and clean energy.
Japan today said it will ease requirements for issuing multiple-entry visas to short-term Indian travellers from January 11, days after India announced “visa on arrival” to all Japanese citizens from March 1.
It said that the agreement would be signed after the technical details, including those related to the internal procedures, were finalised. Japan’s cooperation will be in sync with India’s energy strategy and will form a key foundation for raising the Japan-India bilateral relationship to a higher dimension. “It also happened with the United States too”, he said.
New Delhi has been insisting on right to reprocess nuclear fuel to be procured from Japan.
On the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT) issue, he said India had put it behind with Japan’s help in 2008 itself when the nuclear suppliers group decided to make an exception for India.
The deal was one of a raft of agreements reached after talks between the two sides in Delhi. In 2013, India received 2.20 lakhs tourists from Japan.
Japan is the only country to have suffered a nuclear attack.
“For the first time, Japan will import cars from India. India reminded Japan of the voluntary moratorium it has put in place and most countries accept India’s word as credible”, he added.
India and Japan had implemented Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) in August 2011.
The two Prime Ministers affirmed their commitment to work together for India to become a full member in the four global export control regimes: Nuclear Suppliers Group, Missile Technology Control Regime, Wassenaar Arrangement and Australia Group.
Asked if the closer military cooperation was aimed at China, with which Japan is involved in a territorial dispute in the South China Sea, Yasuhisa Kawamura, Press Secretary of the Japanese government, denied.
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“China has its activities in East China Sea, South China and is known for its border transgressions”, Srikanth Kondapalli, head of East Asian Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi told AFP.
