North Korea will have to reverse its missile and nuclear programs, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe said in Gandhinagar at the end of his bilateral talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Abe said that India-Japan ties will have a global impact and that both sides will jointly address bilateral, regional and global challenges, even as Mr. Modi welcomed more Japanese investments in India.
“Japan and India will take firm action against the challenges that have emerged from North Korea,” he said. “We are going to force North Korea to reverse its recent aggressive moves. Japanese concerns over the recent test of a Pyongyang hydrogen bomb, which has also developed intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of targeting the mainland of the United States.
The two leaders addressed the media after a busy schedule in the morning when they jointly inaugurated the High-Speed Train Project that will connect Ahmedabad with Mumbai. Abe said the two countries will jointly develop greater connectivity within India and also contribute to greater regional connectivity to Africa.
“Kawasaki Heavy Industries and Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd will work on the Make in India project in India to support the high-speed rail project we jointly opened this morning. As part of bilateral agreements, the Japanese language will be taught in 100 schools and 1000 teachers of Japanese language will soon be trained, “said Mr. Abe revealing the support structure that will drive the High-Speed Train Project, also known as the Bullet Train.
In a warm speech, Prime Minister Modi welcomed greater Japanese participation in Indian business and said that the number of Japanese citizens living in India will increase in the coming year.
“The Japanese people who live in India will be able to import Japanese food from their home,” said Modi, “and I welcome more Japanese restaurants in India, which will be highly profitable in the future bilateral scenario.”
In a significant move, Japan also made public the strategically important region of northeastern India. “The two prime ministers have welcomed cooperation between Japan and India in the development of the Northeast region of India (NER) as a concrete symbol of the development of synergies between India’s eastern law policy and the Japan Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy. ”
Both the points on North Korea and the reference to the Indo-Pacific Free and Open Strategy – developed to deal with Chinese influence – are significant in view of the Doklam crisis that had been resolved between India and China. Visiting India last week, a key adviser to Prime Minister Abe had revealed Japan’s concerns about China’s “expansionist” and North Korean threat.
The two leaders also stressed that maritime cooperation between the Japanese Self-Defense Force and the Indian Navy had expanded to include “anti-submarine aspects” and recognized the need for a greater need for maritime domain awareness (MDA) in the Indo-Pacific Region.
Interestingly, both sides also agreed to support small islands in the Pacific region as part of their common strategy.
The Joint Declaration emphasized the extension of joint exercises in the field of humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HA / DR), peacekeeping operations and the fight against terrorism.
The Joint Statement further stated that “both parties noted recent progress in bilateral cooperation in defense equipment and technology, including the start of the technical discussion for future research collaboration in the area of unmanned vehicles and robotics.”
The Joint Statement described the state of the art of US-2 amphibious aircraft as a symbol of “high degree of trust between the two countries.” Both leaders also welcomed the opening of the first lithium-ion battery factory in India through a joint collaboration of three major Japanese – Suzuki, Toshiba and Denso.
