SPEECHES / STATEMENTS 

PM's opening remarks at the Joint Press Conference with PM of Japan

October 22, 2008, Tokyo

“I have just held very productive and fruitful talks with Prime Minister Aso. He is an old and highly respected friend of India. I would like to thank the Prime Minister and the government and people of Japan for the very warm welcome they have given to me and to the members of my delegation.

This is my second bilateral visit to Japan as Prime Minister in less than two years. This in itself reflects the great importance that India attaches to its relationship with Japan. Frequent high level visits reflect the importance we attach to our relations with Japan.

In the past four years there has been a qualitative upgradation in our bilateral relationship. The Joint Statement that Prime Minister Aso and I have signed today reflects the significant progress we have made since the establishment of our Strategic and Global Partnership in December 2006.

Japan is a major economic partner of India. We are grateful for the economic assistance that we have got from Japan. India today happens to be the largest recipient of Japanese ODA. Prime Minister Aso and I agreed that our economic engagement must be widened and deepened.

I told the Prime Minister that the sky is the limit for Japanese investment into India, and requested him to encourage Japanese industry to come to India. On our part we will do all that is necessary to create a congenial investment climate.

I look forward to an early conclusion of a high quality and mutually beneficial Comprehensive Economic Partnership Engagement. Our joint collaboration on the Dedicated Freight Corridor Project will shortly begin. This will transform the scale and magnitude of our economic partnership.

We have also signed a Joint Declaration on Security Cooperation. This reflects our shared desire to contribute to peace, prosperity and stability in Asia and in the world. We also agreed that there should be collaboration between our two countries in the operationalization of the Delhi-Mumbai industrial corridor for which a memorandum of understanding has been reached for the Project Development Facility for this very ambitious project.

Our discussions also covered regional and global issues, particularly the international financial crisis. We agreed that we will work together and coordinate our thinking on this important issue of today. India and Japan I believe can serve as a new Zone of Growth to counter the global economic slowdown.

We agreed to cooperate in key areas of common interest such as energy security and climate change, East Asia Summit, United Nations reforms and other multilateral issues such as the WTO. We also had a very useful exchange of views in encouraging and promoting people to people contact. I heartily welcome Prime Minister Aso’s programme of youth cooperation and I promise him all help in realizing this very ambitious goal that the Prime Minister has set for people to people contact. I greatly appreciate what Prime Minister has told me with regard to the Japanese interest for the development of IIT Hyderabad and the development of the Indian Institute of Information Technology at Jabalpur.

I have invited Prime Minister Aso to visit India at a mutually convenient time next year to continue our dialogue.

Altogether this has been a most satisfying visit for me and I thank His Excellency the Prime Minister for having made a very important contribution to successful outcome of this important meeting.”