China’s aggressive posturing in the Indo-Pacific region and continuing stand-offs at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Eastern Ladakh are likely figure prominently in the talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida here on Saturday. The two leaders are also likely to review the situation arising due to the Ukraine crisis.
The Japanese prime minister will visit New Delhi for a day and will leave for Cambodia the next day, sources said here on Tuesday. Besides security related issues, the two leaders will also explore ways to further enhance their ties in the field of trade and commerce and more bullet train projects besides the Mumbai-Ahmedabad corridor, they said.
The 17-billion dollar project was inaugurated in 2017 by former Japanese PM Shinzo Abe and Modi. The project is largely funded by loans from Japan’s International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
The annual summit between the two leaders was put off several times since 2019 due to various reasons. The upcoming event comes at a time when this year marks the 70th anniversary of the establishment of India-Japan bilateral ties. The two leaders will also discuss the upcoming QUAD summit in Tokyo.
India and Japan have forged a “Special Strategic and Global Partnership,” and started annual summit level talks in 2005. The talks are held alternately between the two countries each year. The last in-person, 13th annual summit was held in 2018 when Prime Minister Modi visited Japan.
Abe’s visit for the 14th annual summit was cancelled at the last minute as he was due to visit Guwahati when protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act broke out in 2019. The covid pandemic forced postponement of summit in 2020. The two Prime Ministers held telephonic talks in September 2020.
Modi then met Abe’s successor Yoshihide Suga for a summit on the sideline of the first in-person meeting of the heads of states of Quad nations in Washington last year hosted by the US.