New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said Japan will be raising the investment target in India to Rs 3.2 lakh crore or 5 trillion yen over the next five years. India and Japan inked six agreements following bilateral talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida. Prime Minister Modi said India was committed to providing all possible support to Japanese companies in India.
“Progress, prosperity, and partnership are the basis of India-Japan relations,” Modi said at the India-Japan Economic Forum. The two leaders witnessed an exchange of agreements between their countries, in areas of cybersecurity, capacity building, information sharing, and cooperation.
Earlier, Kishida was received by PM Modi at Hyderabad House in Delhi and both leaders held productive talks. Taking “another step towards advancing the India-Japan partnership”, they discussed ways to boost economic and cultural linkages between the two countries.
Addressing a press conference after their bilateral talks and the economic forum, PM Modi said, “Japan is one of the largest investors in India. India-Japan are working as ‘One team, one project’ on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed rail corridor,” adding, “today, India presents immense possibilities through ‘Make in India’ for the world.”
In this context, Japanese companies have long been our brand ambassadors, PM Modi said, adding that the clean energy partnership between the two countries will prove to be a decisive step in this direction.
“Both India and Japan understand the importance of a secure, trusted, predictable, and stable energy supply. It is essential to achieve the goal of sustainable economic growth and to tackle the problem of climate change,” Modi said.
Kishida’s 5-trillion yen goal exceeds the 3.5-trillion yen in investment and financing over the five years that the then Japanese PM Shinzo Abe had announced during his 2014 visit to India, as per Japan’s Nikkei newspaper.
Japan is currently supporting India’s urban infrastructure development as well as a high-speed railway based on Japan’s shinkansen bullet train technology.
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The two countries are partners in the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, a security framework known as the Quad that includes the US and Australia.
PM Modi emphasized the importance of deepening the India-Japan partnership. “This will encourage peace, prosperity, and stability in the Indo-Pacific region and also at the global level,” he said.
The Quad leaders agreed that the world was still grappling with the Covid-19 pandemic and its side effects, as there were hurdles in the process of global economic recovery. Meanwhile, geopolitical events such as the Ukraine war had presented a new challenge.
On this count, Kishida said he was trying his best to conduct the next 2+2 talks soon. “We need a free and open Indo-Pacific for strategic partnership, he added.
“The whole world has been shaken due to many disturbances, it’s very important for India and Japan to have a close partnership. We expressed our views, talked about the serious invasion of Russia into Ukraine. We need a peaceful solution on the basis of international law,” Kishida said.
