India to get bullet train, inks Rs 98k-crore deal with Japan

The holy city of Varanasi decks up for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe’s visit to attend “Ganga Aarti” at famous Dasaswamedh Ghat on Saturday.

During the talks, there was progress on civil nuclear energy between the two countries, but no final agreement has been reached as some differences remain to be ironed out.

Highlighting the need to leverage their excellent bilateral relations to promote trilateral dialogues and cooperation with major partners in the region, the two Prime Ministers welcomed the holding of the Japan-India-US Trilateral dialogue among the Foreign Ministers of the three countries in NY in September 2015.

“This enterprise will launch a revolution in Indian railways and speed up India’s journey into the future”, Modi said of the deal.

Said Modi, “No friend will matter more in realizing India’s economic dreams than Japan”. Mr Kawamura highlighted the “agreement on transfer of defence equipment and technology cooperation” and the “agreement on security measures for the protection of classified military information”.

New Delhi and Tokyo started formal negotiations in June 2010 – two years after the Indo-US nuke deal ended India’s isolation from global nuclear commerce.

“For the first time, Japan will import cars from India”. Earlier today, he left for Japan.

“Make in India” is proceeding in mission mode, not just in India, but also in Japan, he added.

In the past decade, ties between India and Japan have improved dramatically and Mr Modi has made strengthening ties with Japan a special priority since taking office a year ago.

The Indian premier spoke warmly of his friendship with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as well as pointing to the power of their political alliance, after signing deals including the $15 billion Shinkansen train.

Japan is apparently looking for additional nonproliferation guarantees before it exports nuclear reactors to New Delhi, which is not a signatory to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. “They pledged to work for peace, security and development of the Indo-Pacific region”, said the statement.

NEW DELHI, DEC 12: As both countries “in principle” agreed for cooperation in civil nuclear energy, Japan today cautioned India that it will be “quite natural” for it to review its cooperation if New Delhi goes for a nuclear test.

The visa on arrival facility for Japanese tourists will also give a boost to tourism in the country, Sharma emphasised.

When asked about the target, he said: “We expect to export 20,000 to 30,000 units in a year”.

On terrorism, both leaders called upon all countries to implement the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1267 and other relevant resolutions designating terrorist entities.

On the issue of use of spent fuel and reprocessing, Jaishankar said Japanese side was conveyed about the various aspects of India’s nuclear liability regime.