“No friend will matter more in realising India’s economic dreams than Japan”, Mr Modi said, describing Mr Abe as “a personal friend and a great champion of India-Japan partnehip”. “It also happened with the USA too”, he said. That is set to happen “after the technical details are finalized”, the statement added.
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He said that by substantive agreement, it meant that both India and Japan have agreed on various provisions which were in an agreement.
Japan is the only country to have suffered a nuclear attack.
The bullet train network will link the India’s financial hub Mumbai with Ahmedabad, the capital of Modi’s home state, Gujarat.
According to Indian officials, the high-speed railway will cost $15 billion in total, of which Japan is to fund about 80%. “It will become an engine of economic transformation in India”, Modi said in a speech.
Highlighting the need to leverage their excellent bilateral relations to promote trilateral dialogues and cooperation with major partners in the region, the two Prime Ministers welcomed the holding of the Japan-India-US Trilateral dialogue among the Foreign Ministers of the three countries in NY in September 2015.
Abe said India was a very attractive investment destination for Japan.
“Today, we have scaled new summits in our shared journey”, a visibly pleased Modi told the media after his delegation-level talks with the visiting side, led by Japanese PM Shinzo Abe.
First, India no longer has to choose between slightly obsolete Russian nuclear technology and expensive European Pressurised Reactors from French manufacturer Areva.
He said closer cooperation between the two countries is also “strategically important”.
“We have also advanced our regional partnership in the course of the year”.
Abe said, “We have taken relationship to a new level”. They also acknowledged that stability of the Indo-Pacific region to be “indispensable” to their respective national security and prosperity, calling for a more robust cooperation in security issues.
“We will also strive for our rightful place in a reformed UN Security Council”. Modi also announced that India in March will begin extending “visa on arrival” privileges to Japanese citizens in recognition of the two countries’ special relationship.
Automobiles are expected to be the single biggest draw for the Japanese in India.
The two Prime Ministers reaffirmed the intention to develop Japan Industrial Townships (JITs) in India with incentive for companies which invest in the project. So too is the idea that Tokyo’s concerns about a nuclear deal with New Delhi – liability, tracking etc. – have been outweighed by its own economic concerns.
Japan agreed to help finance infrastructure projects in India, including roads in its northeastern states, one of which is the disputed area of Arunachal Pradesh. This is the first time that Japan has inked such an MoU with any non-NPT (Non Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons Treaty) signatory country.
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India, which has 22 nuclear power plants, has ambitious plans to quadruple its present 5,000 megawatts of nuclear power to 20,000 megawatts by 2020 to fuel the energy demands of its booming economy.
