Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart, Shinzo Abe, will lay the groundwork for the next level of collaboration during the annual summit meeting to be held in Gandhinagar on Wednesday, the External Affairs Ministry said on Monday.
The Ministry said the high point of the visit was likely to be the joint inauguration of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed rail project and bilateral security dialogue.
“The two leaders will review the recent progress in the multifaceted cooperation between India and Japan under the framework of their ‘Special Strategic and Global Partnership’ and will set its future direction,” said a press release issued by the Ministry.
Mr. Abe begins a two-day visit on September 13 during which he and Mr. Modi will hold wide-ranging bilateral discussions covering bilateral and global issues. This will be the fourth annual summit between them.
Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said the leaders would jointly participate in the ground-breaking ceremony for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed rail project using Japanese Shinkansen technology — also known as the bullet train project — in Gandhinagar.
Training institute
Through a video-link, they will participate in the ground-breaking ceremony of the High Speed Railway Training Institute to be set up in Vadodara.
Mr. Abe will visit the memorial dedicated to Mahatma Gandhi at Dandi Kutir. However the focus of Mr.Abe’s visit is likely to be the bilateral discussion on security issues, especially on North Korea and China.
His visit was preceded by that of his senior adviser, Katsuyuki Kawai, who addressed a public meeting here last week and laid out the immediate security challenges following the test of a hydrogen bomb by North Korea.
India-Japan ties are at a crucial phase in a range of areas, including defence and security. In their annual defence dialogue last week, the two countries had resolved to collaborate closely in defence production, including on dual-use technologies.
