Japan recently announced doubling of its private and public investment in India to about $34 billion over the next five years even as the two countries decided to elevate their ties to a special strategic global partnership.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe during their summit talks also reaffirmed the importance of bilateral defence relations in their strategic partnership and agreed on greater defence equipment and technology cooperation.
At a joint press conference, Abe also announced that as an example of Indo-Japan cooperation, Tokyo will help India in providing financial, technical and operational support to introduce Bullet trains, a project that Modi has been actively pursuing.
The 3.5 trillion yen($34 billion) of investment from Japan to India including Official Development Assositance (ODA) during a 5-year period will be under the aegis of India-Japan Investment Promotion Partnership for development of projects including infrastructure and building of smart cities.
The five-year period will also see the doubling of the presence of Japanese firms in India, Abe said. Thanking Abe for providing him an opportunity to make Japan his first bilateral visit outside South Asia, Modi said, "We both have decided to raise the relationship to a special strategic and global partnership by giving it a special emphasis". Asserting that his visit ushered in a dawn of new era in Indo-Japan relations, Modi said there is no "limit" to partnership between the two countries.
Coinciding with the summit, Japan removed six of India's space and defence-related entities from its Foreign End User List. Modi said India and Japan are old friends and that his current visit will give an opportunity to both of them to further intensify their ties.
Modi said a developed India and a prosperous Japan was important for Asia and for global peace and security. India and Japan are two big democracies and they are also part of the three big economies of Asia, he noted.
He said 21st century is said to be Asia's century but for that to become a reality it is dependent on cooperation between India and Japan and that is why the two countries have decided to elevate their relationship. "This is not just raising the relationship from one category to another... Our relationship is not only regional in its framework, but will have a global impact," he added.
