Prime Minister Narendra Modi met his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe on the sidelines of the East Asia summit in Bangkok on Monday.
They discussed the overall relations between the two nations focusing on economic ties which have strengthened owing to the high- level visits.
Along with the Prime Minister, External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and other dignitaries also attended the meeting.
PM Abe had earlier pledged investment up to US $35 Billion into India during his visit in 2014. A separate cell has been set up in the Prime Minister’s office to facilitate investments from Japan. Also the Department for promotion of industry and internal trade, Ministry of Commerce and Industry has set up the ‘Japan plus’ initiative to facilitate investments from Japan.
The bilateral trade between the two nations is about US $15 Billion.
The progress of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project worth Rs 1.08 trillion was also reviewed. The bullet train has recently experienced fast paced pre-construction activity as the Gujarat High Court dismissed over 100 petitions related to land acquisition. This is a symbol of Indo-Japanese collaboration in the infrastructure sector in India.
The two nations also discussed the formalities of the strategic 2+2 dialogue scheduled later this year. This dialogue is a forum consisting of the External Affairs and Defence Ministers of both the nations who meet regularly every year and take the relationship forward.
Japan is one of the few nations that India has a 2+2 dialogue framework agreement with.
The Prime Minister will be participating in the RCEP negotiations today before concluding his trip to Bangkok and leaving for New Delhi. He has been in Bangkok since Saturday evening to attend the ASEAN-India meet, East Asia summit and the RCEP negotiations.
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Prime Minister Modi will also attend Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Summit, where the leaders of the member countries will review the state of negotiations which are ongoing in Bangkok currently and will continue over the next few days.
RCEP is a proposed free trade agreement among 10 ASEAN countries, namely Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Laos and Vietnam and their six FTA partners China, Japan, India, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.
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Modi is also scheduled to attend several bilaterals including with Vietnam Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and Australia Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
Modi is slated to depart from Don Mueang International Airport Bangkok to Delhi at 10 pm (local time).