India to get Japan’s bullet train

The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi and the Prime Minister of Japan, Mr. Shinzo Abe at the signing ceremony, in New Delhi on December 12, 2015.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who held talks with his Japanese counterpart and hosted him in his parliamentary constituency of Varanasi, showed little hesitation in calling Japan his country’s closest economic partner.

Similarly, while they agreed to work towards cooperation in civil-nuclear technology, they stopped short of signing an agreement, citing outstanding technical and legal differences. A spokesman for India’s foreign ministry said it will be signed once technical details are finalized.

“We hope that countries outside the region will respect efforts being made by the countries in the region to maintain security and stability of the SCS rather than the other way around”, he said.

“The memorandum on civil nuclear energy cooperation…is a shining symbol of a new level of mutual confidence and strategic partnership in cause of peaceful and secure world”, Modi said.

While welcoming Shinzo at Hyderabad House, Modi said, “I am delighted to welcome PM Shinzo, a personal friend and a great champion of India-Japan partnership”.

The Indian PM further said that the wide ranging collaboration between India and Japan, especially in clean energy and energy efficiency technology, would create solutions for the world at large.

The train system will use technology developed to build Japan’s Shinkansen bullet-train network that began operating more than five decades ago, running trains at a speed of over 180 miles an hour.

Abe also affirmed the policy of having regular dialogue among Japan, India and the United States as well as Japan, Australia and India.

According to Indian officials, the high-speed railway will cost $15 billion in total, of which Japan is to fund about 80%.

The two countries also inked two deals on security operations to deepen defence relations and for defence manufacturing.

Tokyo is encouraging Japanese businesses to tap fast-growing emerging markets such as India, as the domestic market shrinks due to a rapidly ageing population and low birthrate.

The two countries also signed a deal that would help India’s efforts to upgrade its military equipment.

Apparently, the Indian side gave assurances to Japan’s strong non-proliferation lobby to expedite the deal, but the Japanese preferred to play safe and sought time necessary for Prime Minister Abe to convince the Japanese parliament on the assurances given by India.