Japan Prime Minister’s visit: Terror, digital cooperation figure in summit

On Afghanistan, the PMs expressed “their intention to collaborate closely to realise peace and stability in Afghanistan, and stressed the importance of addressing the humanitarian crisis, promoting human rights and ensuring establishment of a truly representative and inclusive political system”. They also referred to the UNSC Resolution that unequivocally demands that “Afghan territory not be used for sheltering, training, planning or financing terrorist acts”.

Since Kishida is from Hiroshima, he “stressed the importance of early entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT)”. This is significant since Kishida represents the constituency in the Japanese parliament.

With an eye on India’s infrastructure development in the Northeast, the two sides decided to launch a “Sustainable Development Initiative for the North Eastern Region of India”, which includes both ongoing projects and possible future cooperation in connectivity, healthcare, new and renewable energy, as well as initiative for strengthening bamboo value chain.

They also flagged India’s approval to imports of Japanese apples and relaxation in procedures for Indian mango exports to Japan.

On cyber security, the leaders discussed “India-Japan Digital Partnership” with a view to enhancing the digital economy through promotion of joint projects for digital transformation and collaboration in the area of IoT, AI and other emerging technologies. The joint statement said that Prime Minister Kishida looked forward to attracting more highly skilled Indian IT professionals to contribute to the Japanese ICT sector.

A clean energy partnership was launched with an objective to encourage manufacturing in India, creation of resilient and trustworthy supply chains in these areas as well as fostering collaboration in R&D. It will be implemented through the existing mechanism of Energy Dialogue, officials said.

The PMs expressed satisfaction on the progress in the flagship bilateral cooperation project of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail (MAHSR). Modi appreciated Japan’s cooperation on the MAHSR and various Metro projects in India and looked forward to the planned preparatory survey for the Patna Metro, the joint statement said.