‘India And Japan Have Established A Win-Win Economic
Relationship’
The first Japanese PM to be chief guest at India’s
Republic Day celebrations, Shinzo Abe took time off on the eve of his visit to
share some thoughts on the future of India-Japan ties -
( Bilateral tensions on the
Senkaku/Diaoyu islands between Japan & China ......
Excerpts:
Q: Japan plays
an important role in the transformation of India. You have played a personal
role in building the India-Japan relationship. What are the measures by which
you think Japan can help in building India in the larger strategic context of
Asian security, stability and prosperity?
First of all, I feel deeply honoured to be the first
Japanese prime minister to be invited as the chief guest of India’s most
important celebration, that of the Republic Day celebration.
I am truly
delighted that Japan and India have long developed very close and friendly
relations over the years. I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude for
the extremely warm welcome extended from the people and the government of India
to their majesties, the Emperor and Empress of Japan, when they visited the
country from the end of November until the beginning of December last year.
I am convinced
that the bilateral relationship between Japan and India is blessed with the
largest potential for development of any bilateral relationship anywhere in the
world. With this in mind, I would like to develop vigorously and enhance our
cooperative relationship with India in a wide range of
areas, including political and security fields, economic relations, and
people-to-people exchange, based on “the Strategic and Global Partnership”.
Japan’s support
for India’s development has been consistent. Back in 1991, for instance, Japan
provided India with an emergency balance of payment support which
helped the Indian economy and its ascendancy in the global economy. Since then,
Japan has been consistently supporting India, as demonstrated by the fact that
India has been the largest partner of Japan’s Official Development
Assistance since 2003.
Further, the economic
cooperation between Japan and India has now expanded into the private sector. Over the
last decade, the trade volume between our two countries has tripled and the number
of Japanese companies operating in India has quadrupled. Indeed,
Japan and India have established a “win-win” economic partnership.
India’s stable
development is also beneficial for the prosperity of the Asia-Pacific region, as the
country has the third largest economy in Asia and the
second largest and increasing population in the world. I am determined to
contribute to the development of our two nations and prosperity of the region
through further strengthening the Japan-India strategic economic partnership and promoting
Japanese companies’ investment into India.
Compared to the
growing
political and economic ties between Japan and India, people-to-people
exchange between the two countries currently leaves more room to
grow. In order to keep the Japan-India relationship on a further solid and
sound base with wider scope, I will make further efforts to impart energy to
human exchange so that more people travel back and forth and actively interact
between our two countries.
Q: You have said
you want Japan to become a ‘normal’ power. What would you like India to do in
the area of defence and maritime security cooperation to help Japan achieve
this goal?
Today, the security environment of the Asia-Pacific
region is becoming ever more severe. As the world becomes more interdependent,
I believe Japan should play a more active role than before to
ensure peace and stability in the region and the world, under the
understanding of ‘Proactive
Contributor to Peace’ based on the principle of international
cooperation. I fully recognize the tremendous role India plays in this
perspective, and hope that Japan and India will further strengthen the
cooperation in the field of security.
To be specific,
our two governments should deepen our dialogue and share each other’s
understanding on regional security, to start
with. It is therefore important to further enhance bilateral dialogues such as
the “2 plus 2” secretary-level
dialogue, and multilateral
dialogues such as the trilateral dialogue among Japan, India and the United States. In
addition, we need to continue and strengthen our bilateral
and multilateral joint maritime exercises. The joint
exercises, conducted on a regular basis by our maritime defence forces and
coast guards, embody the strong ties between Japan and India in maritime
security. I expect these exercises will be further promoted and expanded.
Japan and India
are bound by the seas. As I stated during my last visit to India as prime
minister in 2007, I expect both Japan and India, as maritime states, to play a
vital role together for the security of sea lanes and jointly carry out their
responsibility in the region.
I expect both Japan and India, as maritime states, to
play a vital role together for the security of sea lanes and jointly carry out
their responsibility in the region
SHINZO ABE
Prime Minister of Japan
Jan 24-25 , 2014
No comments:
Post a Comment