India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, speaking at the 6th India-Japan Indo-Pacific Forum, recently highlighted the steadily broadening India-Japan partnership in recent years.
“It is reflected in arrangements such as the Quad, the supply chain resilience initiative, the clean energy partnership, and the semiconductor supply chain partnership. We have also joined multilateral initiatives like the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (Ipec),” Jaishankar virtually said at the forum held on November 16.
The external affairs minister termed these arrangements as critical in creating a reliable and resilient global economy. Japan, he said, continued to play an important role in India’s economic growth story as it is actively involved in various national campaigns and flagship initiatives of India.
“Particularly noteworthy are the infrastructure development, ICT and digitization, energy, space, food processing, science and technology, healthcare, and R&D cooperation,” Jaishankar said.
Against that backdrop, the minister noted that both countries are working on a shared commitment to realise the Yen 5 trillion goals of investment, which is approximately USD 42 billion over the next five years.
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“Defence and security have also seen growth. In recent years, there has been an increasing frequency of defence exchanges. In January this year, we achieved a new milestone through the Veer Guardian bilateral fighter aircraft exercise. We also see scope for increasing defense equipment and technology cooperation,” he said.
2023 has also been an important year for both countries, as they chaired the G20 and G7, respectively.
“As chairs of two international groupings, the G20 and the G7, it was with a sense of exceptional responsibility that India took up the G20 presidency. Our vision of one earth, one family, and one future sought to focus on the key concerns of the many, not just the narrow interests of the few. It was at India’s initiative that the African Union was admitted as a permanent member of the G20, and through that, we gave them a long overdue voice at such an important institution,” Jaishankar said.
Notably, India and Japan marked the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties. Both countries are celebrating 2023 as the India-Japan tourism exchange year with the theme ‘Connecting the Himalayas with Mount Fuji’.
“The purpose of these celebrations is to facilitate greater engagement between our peoples, which would further solidify the foundation of our ties. Today’s dialogue is a very good example of a platform that brings together very diverse points of view to enhance and deepen our relationship,” he concluded.