I am delighted to be back in Tokyo for the 16th round of our Strategic Dialogue and I thank Foreign Minister Kamikawa for hosting us so graciously this evening.
In the first half of our dialogue which has just concluded, the two of us had wide-ranging and forward-leaning discussions covering the entire gamut of our bilateral relations. I also look forward to exchanging views on major regional and global issues in the remaining part of our dialogue.
Today, our meeting allowed us to take stock of various ongoing lines of effort, since the dialogue was held last in July in New Delhi. We agreed on the need for new steps, many of which my colleague, the Minister spoke, to make this relationship prepared for, and responsive to, the emerging geopolitical, geo-economic and geo-technological trends, and as well to the growing demands of the people of the two countries to get to know each other better. Our talks provided strategic guidance to our teams to realize the vision of the India-Japan Special Strategic and Global Partnership, and the expectations that our leaders have of this partnership.
We have made good progress in our defence and security relations, which we both welcomed. Today, just as we are meeting here in Tokyo, the Indian Army is conducting joint exercise with Japanese Self Defense Force, in the Rajasthan State of India. The three branches of our military and Coast Guard are productively engaged with their Japanese counterparts, with greater ease through the newly operationalized reciprocal partnership arrangement. There have been exchanges about cooperation possibilities in the areas of jointness, and new domains like cyber and space. We also took stock of the progress in our Defence Equipment and Technology Cooperation framework.
In economic cooperation, we see a lot of potential for quantum jump of Japanese investment into India, especially from SMEs, as we enter a decade of take-off growth. We are again, as the Minister underlined, seeking to realise our shared target of 5 trillion Yen in terms of overall investment. Government of India remains committed to the continuous improvement in our infrastructure environment. I underlined the importance we attach to the timely execution of flagship projects like the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Railway, which is India’s first shinkansen project.
We welcome Japan’s development role in India’s Northeast, which will be crucial in transforming the connectivity and industrial landscape of that region. It will benefit not only our two countries but also other countries in the neighbourhood through a network of forward and backward linkages. We further agreed to explore coordinated development partnership initiatives by our agencies in third countries.
We also concurred on the need to work together to enhance each other’s economic security and supply chain resilience by taking a strategic view of trade and technology. In this context, we discussed possibilities in semiconductor ecosystem, green technologies and digital payments by leveraging our complementary strengths.
We spoke about ways to enhance our people-to-people engagement through education, tourism and culture. We extended India-Japan Year of Tourism Exchanges to another year in 2024, with the theme of "Connecting the Himalayas with Mount Fuji”, and agreed to hold an India Month and a Japan Month, in each other’s countries, later in the year. I spoke to the Minister as well about the need for a more facilitative visa regime for Indian tourists and other citizens to travel to Japan. We also discussed the shared interest we had in providing greater avenues of mobility for Indian talent and for Indian skills to Japan. Expanding the scope of the existing arrangements, and helping promote Japanese language teaching and testing throughout the country would be a natural first step.
India and Japan, as two major Indo-Pacific nations sharing values, histories and interests, have abiding stakes in peace, security, prosperity of our region, and are ready to play a responsible role commensurate to the needs of our times. Whether it is the developmental aspirations of the Global South, or the reform of the institutions and mechanisms of global governance, or fighting transnational crimes, or defending against disruptions to supply chains, cooperation between India and Japan has a world of possibilities. I look forward to discussing these matters with Foreign Minister Kamikawa in the latter part of our discussion.
Let me once again thank her for her courtesy, hospitality and leadership for this round of the Dialogue, which has been most productive. I look forward to receiving her in India for the next 2+2 ministerial dialogue.
Thank you once again.