The two sides also reviewed their defence and economic partnership at the foreign minister-level strategic dialogue held in Tokyo.
“We have made good progress in our defence and security relations, which we both welcomed. Today, just as we are meeting here in Tokyo, the Indian Army is conducting a joint exercise with the Japanese Self Defence Force, in Rajasthan. The three branches of our military and Coast Guard are productively engaged with their Japanese counterparts, with greater ease through the newly operationalised reciprocal partnership arrangement. There have been exchanges about cooperation possibilities in the areas of jointness, and new domains like cyber and space. We also took stock of the progress in our defence equipment and technology cooperation framework,” Jaishankar said in his remarks to the press following the meeting.
“In economic cooperation, we see a lot of potential for a quantum jump of Japanese investment into India, especially from SMEs, as we enter a decade of take-off growth. We are seeking to realise our shared target of 5 trillion Yen in terms of overall investment. India remains committed to the continuous improvement in our infrastructure environment,” he added.
India also hailed Japan’s role in development in NE regions. “We also concurred on the need to work together to enhance each other’s economic security and supply chain resilience by taking a strategic view of trade and technology. In this context, we discussed possibilities in the semiconductor ecosystem, green technologies and digital payments by leveraging our complementary strengths,” Jaishankar pointed out.
Jaishankar, who is in Japan on a three-day visit from March 6-8, also addressed the first-ever Tokyo edition of the Raisina Roundtable.Addressing the event, Jaishankar said, “I think it is important that Japan today appreciates the pace of change in India. This is a country today which is building 28 kms of highway every day, which is creating 8 new airports every year, which is establishing one-and-a-half to two metros every year, which has for the last 10 years built two new colleges everyday…”Jaishankar noted, “This transformation of India makes us a more effective and credible partner, whether it is ease of doing business, ease of living, digital delivery, startup and innovation culture or shaping the international agenda, India is clearly a very different country today.”
Jaishankar said India is working on major corridors today, both to its east and west.
“They include the IMEC (India Middle East-Europe Corridor) initiative through the Arabian peninsula and the INSTC and towards east the trilateral highway (India-Thailand-Myanmar)…these corridors, when completed, will connect the Atlantic to the Pacific through Asia. Two nations (India and Japan) have converging views about the need for transparent and collaborative connectivity,” Jaishankar said.
The external affairs minister also spoke at length on the Global South and underlined that India is conscious of the responsibility. “As the voice of the Global South, India is conscious of the responsibility, our development efforts today span 78 nations across different continents.”
“We can see that at the Red Sea, we had first casualties…it is also necessary to strengthen our defence capabilities for the benefit of the larger region…” Jaishankar asserted.
Jaishankar said that India and Japan have to confront the prospect that the world is now more volatile, uncertain, unpredictable and open-ended.
He said that countries have to do that from the “national perspectives as well as from the point of view of their own relationship”.
Jaishankar pointed out that it has become much more challenging to reach a consensus between more players on the global stage, given the disorder in the world, as they do not agree on intersecting positions.
India and Japan are natural partners in a world headed towards “re-globalisation”, he said, asserting that the two nations also share basic affinities, being democracies and market economies.
The minister pointed out that the two countries seek to make the UN structure more contemporary for the balance to remain in favour of freedom, transparency, and a rules-based order.
