Bullet trains apart, India needs high-speed growth: Modi

Describing it as an engine of economic growth, Prime Minister Narendra Mod said the bullet train combines speed with safety on “very easy” terms.

It is a great pleasure to host a personal friend & a great champion of India-Japan partnership.

Deeply valuing strategic and global partnership, Modi said,”No other strategic partnership can exercise a more profound influence on shaping the course of Asia and our interlinked ocean regions”.

Japanese PM reiterated that the partnership with India has reached to a new level and buds have turned into blossoms.

“I also appreciate Prime Minister Abe’s support for India’s membership of the APEC”, Modi said adding Japanese private investments are also rising sharply.

Tokyo and New Delhi agreed to major deals Saturday, including the introduction of Japan’s bullet train technology to India and in nuclear cooperation.

Japan, the only country to have suffered a nuclear attack, has been demanding additional non-proliferation guarantees from India before it exports nuclear reactors. India’s first bullet train network will come up between Mumbai and Ahmedabad at a cost of Rs 98,000 crore.

“We stand strongly for ensuring freedom of navigation and overflight, and unimpeded maritime commerce”, he said.

“It is a symbol of a new level of mutual trust and strategic partnership”, Modi stated at a press briefing in the follow-up to the meeting with his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe.

Japan has committed a total $35 billion investment in India and within a short span of time span “unimaginable progress” had been made and the contours of this investment were beginning to get visible on the ground, Modi said at the India-Japan Business Leaders Forum.

Terming defence pacts as “decisive steps in our security cooperation”, Modi said they will deepen the defence relations and promote defence manufacturing in India.

The two leaders also agreed a long-mooted memorandum of understanding on the peaceful use of nuclear energy, which will be signed once technical details are finalised, a spokesman for India’s foreign ministry said on Twitter. “And Maruti will manufacture cars here”, Modi said.

“They called for an immediate commencement and early conclusion of negotiations on a non-discriminatory, multilateral and internationally and effectively verifiable Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty (FMCT) on the basis of Shannon Mandate”, the statement added. “This is different from the electronic visa facility that is being extended globally”, said Prime Minister Modi.