Narendra Modi in Japan starting from November 11
Deepening cooperation in the sectors which include tourism, high-speed railways, automobiles, maritime security and also defence trade will top the agenda of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Japan which is starting from November 11.
Also a part of a framework for a smart heritage city programme between these two countries, a MoU is likely to be further inked between the city of Kobe and with an Indian city in the presence of Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. “The prime minister is also expected to travel to Kobe city on a bullet train starting from Tokyo before flying out to India,” according to sources.
Incidentally, in the year 2014, a partner city MoU has been also signed by Indian and Kyoto mayor providing for some cooperation in heritage conservation, city modernization and also cooperation in the fields of art, culture and academics.
As per some reports, the two countries are also looking to further sign a bilateral nuclear cooperation pact during the time of Narendra Modi in Japan.
Such a treaty is further expected to allow Japan to export nuclear power plants to India, which will give boost to Abe’s push to promote infrastructure exports as a way of fuelling economic growth. Moreover, both the sides have reached a basic agreement on concluding this pact when they met in New Delhi last December.
Japanese ambassador to India Kenji Hiramatsu, had hinted during a recent interaction with mediapersons, that had indicated that his country was looking at some “concrete” action when the Narendra Modi in Japan would happen.
Martime Issues also a top agenda
India and Japan have also established a mechanism in order to discuss maritime issues as they both want that status quo in the maritime domain which should not be changed militarily and every nation should be further following the international laws of the sea, the Japanese envoy said in an interaction with was journalists organised by the Indian Association of Foreign Correspondents.
The envoy has also said that Japan also wanted India to be part of its Indo-Pacific initiative, which Prime Minister Abe has articulated at the sixth Tokyo International conference on African Development (TICAD) held in Nairobi recently, the first of which was outside Japan since the launch of the initiative in 1993.
