Japan PM Fumio Kishida Visits India on 20 March for Two Days to Discuss Bilateral Ties

Japan PM Fumio Kishida and PM Modi to engage in bilateral ties over two days in light of the Presidencies of the G20 in New Delhi and G7 in Tokyo.

Written by: Arjita Gupta

Edited by: Krutarth Ghosalkar

Last Updated: March 21, 2023

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will arrive on 20 March to New Delhi, India on a two-day trip to take further the bilateral tie discussions in the event of the last Summit held in March 2022. This is in regard to New Delhi and Tokyo holding the Presidencies for G20 and G7, respectively. Japan’s PM said that he has some new plans and concrete ideas for a free and open Indo-Pacific, and the future. He and PM Modi will exchange views as to things the two countries need to do to tackle the international challenges.

Kishida’s office also said that they want to strengthen cooperation and the Special Strategic and Global Partnership. The partnership between these countries is for trade, education, defense, investment, security, critical and emerging technologies, S&T, and healthcare. During the two-day visit, the nations may also talk about converging interests about challenges posed globally about energy transitions, food, economic stability, health security, and other subjects.

Arindam Bagchi, the official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) stressed that Japan is a vital partner and India looks forward to the bilateral discussions. The MEA spokesperson also said that Japan is partnered with India in multilateral and plurilateral constructs and holds annual summits. Thus, they intended to exchange views with the PM of Japan. He also what the two leaders will talk about is too soon to be judged.

From 20 to 21 March 2023, Japanese PM Fumio Kishida will visit nation, India. The Japanese PM is willing to meet PM Modi at the soonest to discuss the regional and bilateral issues of mutual interest. This official release of the news occurred on 10 March by the Ministry of External Affairs. The two nations share Special Strategic and Global Partnerships currently. Since 2006, Japan and India are holding Regular Annual Summits. In March 2022, we saw the latest Summit in New Delhi.

India has an Annual Summit and a 2 2 Foreign and Defence Ministerial Meeting. And Japan is a close partner to it. Tokyo and New Delhi have also participated in QUAD (Quadrilateral Strategic Dialogue) with US and Australia. Defense cooperation is also on the list. These countries support and work with regional alliances for an open and free Indo-Pacific. In January 2023, ‘Veer Guardian’ in its first fighter jet exercise took place in Japan.

It was indeed a great milestone between India and Japan. Then the 4^th army exercise – Dharma Guardian followed and was done for the first time in Japan. Among the exercises conducted, several maritime security cooperation-related tasks topped the cooperation between navy-to-navy. India was also a part in November last year for International Fleet Review. This exercise took place in Japan while the Malabar exercise happened on the Coast of Japan.

And JIMEX preceded the two of the activities discussed now, in September. The bilateral trade between Japan and India is also a welcome sign for economic and commercial ties. The last year itself, the bilateral trade was responsible for USD 20.75 billion. Being the 5^th largest investor in India, Japan and a number of its regional companies are looking for opportunities in the nation in different sectors.

India and Japan are already cooperating to improve and promote industrial cooperation among their nations under Industrial Competitiveness Partnership (IJICP). The Annual Summit on this was held in March 2022 in New Delhi and the roadmap was launched. On 28 February 2023, the IJICP meeting in Tokyo was from the Indian side co-chaired by the Secretary of DPIIT. While the Japanese side included the Ministry of Economy, Trade & Industry and the Vice Minister for International Affairs.

In the Annual summit last year, India and Japan also introduced a Clean Energy Partnership. This intends to realistic energy transitions through the promotion of energy cooperation between the two nations. They also plan to use all energy technologies and sources to guarantee carbon neutrality, economic growth, and energy security.