India, Japan also cooperating on key global issues, says Modi

Gandhinagar, Sept 14: Hailing the growing warmth in expanding relations between India and Japan, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said that ties between the two countries were not limited to bilateral or regional spheres but India and Japan were also cooperating on key global issues. In a joint press statement after delegation level talks with visiting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Mr Modi said that in 2016-2017 Japan had invested 4.7-billion dollars in India which is 80 per cent higher than the last year. Referring to the ground breaking ceremony of Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail Project earlier this morning, Mr Modi said it will be the lifeline of ``New India.' He said that both India and Japan enjoyed trust and confidence in their bilateral ties and understood each other's concerns as well. Mr Modi said that India Post and Japan Post will soon start a "Cool Box' service for Japanese living in India so that they can order and get their favourite food delivered at home from Japan. He also urged the business community to open chain of new Japanese restaurants in India which has the potential of a thriving business. Mr Modi said that be it the ease of doing business, Skill India or Make in India programmes, India was transforming and presenting new opportunities for Japanese companies to who were connected with many of these programmes. Welcoming the agreements signed today in the presence of both the Prime Ministers, Mr Modi said the agreements would strengthen India-Japan partnership. The two countries signed MoU on international academic and sports exchange, on cooperation in civil aviation and other areas. The two Prime Ministers also condemned in the strongest terms North Korea's continued development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes. Prime Minister Abe recalled that India, Japan and the US had conducted maritime exercise Malabar for the first time which was indicative of the strong ties of mutual trust. Referring to his last year's visit to Japan, Mr Modi thanked Japan for ratification of cooperation agreement on civil nuclear programme. He said that both the countries were also cooperating in clean energy and climate change. Mr Modi welcomed Mr Abe whom he described as his friend and greeted him in Japanese. UNI