India needs high-speed growth: Modi

Under the two security deals, India and Japan will share defense technology, military equipment and information, while under the civil nuclear deal, both countries made a decision to work on cooperation.

A bilateral agreement formed between an importing and exporting country to prevent the use of nuclear energy for military purposes.

The countries also agreed to cooperate on peaceful use of nuclear energy, the final deal for which will be signed after the technical details are confirmed, the Associated Press reported.

India and Japan have been negotiating a nuclear energy deal since Japan’s ally, the United States, opened the way for nuclear commerce with India despite its atomic bomb program and shunning of the global Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (left) and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi shake hands while exchanging documents during a signing of agreement at Hyderabad House in New Delhi, India today.

“With a view to supporting [the] growth of India, both [the] public and private sector of Japan will act in unison”, Abe said.

Japan today said it will ease requirements for issuing multiple-entry visas to short-term Indian travellers from January 11, days after India announced “visa on arrival” to all Japanese citizens from March 1.

Explaining why India deeply values the strategic partnership with Japan, Modi said, “No friend will matter more in realizing India’s economic dreams than Japan and I cannot think of a strategic partnership that can exercise a more profound influence on shaping the course of Asia and our interlinked ocean regions more than ours”. The project will be executed in a joint venture of the Indian and Japanese companies, Jaishankar said in a media briefing.

The “Make in India” is proceeding in mission mode not just in India but also in Japan, he said referring to the “Japan Plus” initiative that was begun a year ago as a policy experiment.

Regarding reprocessing, Jaishanker said that it has been a long standing position of India that reprocessing was an integral part of the its nuclear programme because the manner in which it ran its nuclear programme it needed the spent fuel to be reprocessed and not allow it to accumulate. The Japanese PM, accompanied by Modi, not only meticulously followed the rituals – Ganga pujan, aachman and sankalp, as described by priests, he also photographed from his personal cellphone the festivities and the Ganga aarti. Analysts say despite a 15 percent annual rate of increase in two-way trade, India accounts for only 1.2 percent of Japan’s total trade, and Japan for 2 percent of India’s. Abe will return to New Delhi in the evening and depart on Sunday.