The deal will likely be announced this weekend when Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe travels to India to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
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Another highlight is the Japanese prime minister’s trip to Varanasi, Modi’s parliamentary constituency, on Saturday where he will attend the Ganga Aarti at Dasaswamedh Ghat.
Japan once shunned nuclear cooperation with India, which has not ratified the worldwide nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, but analysts say Tokyo has softened its stance in the face of China’s growing assertiveness. This is significant for both Japan and India. He was one of the first Asian leaders to envision a “broader Asia”, linking the Pacific and Indian Oceans to form the Indo-Pacific. A partnership city arrangement was signed between Varanasi and Kyoto during Modi’s visit to Japan past year.
In September, China won a contract on a similar project with Indonesia to build a 150km fast train rail link to connect capital Jakarta with the textile hub in Bandung.
Even as the India-Japan relationship blossoms, Modi has taken care to maintain friendly ties with President Xi Jinping while Abe has also worked to overcome tensions with China. In that vein, during Abe’s visit, a deal may also be reached for India to buy the Japanese-made US-2 maritime reconnaissance aircraft, marking a first for Japan, which has traditionally been reticent to supply Japanese-made military hardware to other countries.
In October, Japan sent vice infrastructure minister Junzo Yamamoto to India, where he urged Indian Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu and other officials to adopt the Shinkansen technology.
The courtship is part of Japan’s effort to broaden its network of informal allies to balance China’s activities in the region – a step toward Abe’s blueprint for a “security diamond” of regional democracies that includes the US and Australia.
Both the prime minister had certain meeting in the different programs on the world level. Mr Modi, who is expected to host a dinner for the Japan PM, will also gift exquisite Banarasi products to Mr Abe.
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“The two sides are discussing financing terms that would disburse about 100 billion yen a year for over a decade or so”. This is will become the first such big-ticket defence deal between India and Japan, if the talks that started in 2011 are concluded.
