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Transcript of Special Briefing by Foreign Secretary on the Visit of Prime Minister of Japan to India (March 20, 2023)

March 20, 2023

Shri Arindam Bagchi, Official Spokesperson: Very good afternoon to all of you. Thank you very much for joining this special media briefing on the occasion of the ongoing visit of the Honourable Prime Minister of Japan, H.E. Mr. Fumio Kishida. We've just had the conversation between the two leaders and you heard their press statements. Subsequently, Honourable Prime Minister of Japan has delivered a lecture. To give us a sense of the ongoing visit, we have the privilege of having Foreign Secretary Sir with us, Shri Vinay Kwatra. Also joining us on the dais, Shri Sibi George, our Ambassador to Japan, as well as Dr. Shilpak Ambule Joint Secretary East Asia and EAMO. Sir, you have the floor.

Shri Vinay Kwatra, Foreign Secretary: Thank you and very good afternoon to the friends from the media. Prime Minister of Japan H.E. Mr. Fumio Kishida is on an official visit to India to meet with Hon’ble Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi ji. I would like to briefly explain to you the context of the visit, run through elements of the programme, give you also a sense of discussions between the two leaders, and then touch upon briefly on couple of outcomes from the meeting.

As you are aware, relations with Japan have always occupied a very special place for India. Japan is one of the very few countries with which India has a system of Annual Summits. In 2014, Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi made his first bilateral visit outside India’s immediate neighbourhood to Japan. During that visit, the India-Japan relationship was upgraded to a Special Strategic and Global Partnership.

Guided by strong political will on both sides, the partnership has made significant progress in the last few years, covering the entire gamut of mutual engagement as witnessed in the growing convergence of our political, strategic and economic interests. In fact, Prime Minister Modi has referred to the India-Japan relationship as being one of the most natural partnerships in the region. India-Japan Special Strategic and Global Partnership, built on the shared values of democracy, freedom and respect for rule of law, is crucial for fostering peace, prosperity and stability in the Indo-Pacific region.

The last Annual Summit, the 14th Annual Summit between Prime Minister Kishida and Hon’ble Prime Minister Modi took place in March of last year in New Delhi. Thereafter, in the past one year, the two Prime Ministers have met, first in May 2022 for Quad Leaders’ Summit in Tokyo and then during the visit of Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Modi to Japan to attend the State Funeral of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in September last year. 2022 marked also the 70th anniversary of India-Japan diplomatic relations. We celebrated this momentous year through various events in India and Japan.

2023 is a pivotal year for both India and Japan as chairs of the two major international groupings – India as the President of the G20 and Japan as the Chair of G7. Our countries have the unique opportunity of converging our priorities on issues of significance and drive through that and in the process, the global agenda. Through G20 presidency, India is working with partner countries, including Japan to provide greater voice to issues of interest to developing countries, in particular the countries of the Global South, about which we have spoken in the past briefings also.

Very quickly, in terms of the programme- Prime Minister Kishida arrived in New Delhi earlier this morning, went to Rajghat thereafter, to pay his tribute to Mahatma Gandhi. The two Prime Ministers then arrived at Hyderabad House for Delegation-level talks. The two leaders also delivered the press statements, which I am sure you would have heard. It was followed by a Restricted Lunch Meeting between the two Prime Ministers, and their close associates. Thereafter, as you just recently watched and heard, Prime Minister Kishida delivered a speech upstairs a short while ago. The two Prime Ministers will later on visit the Buddha Jayanti Park where they will visit the Bal Bodhi tree, in the Buddha Jayanti Park. As per the current schedule, Prime Minister Kishida will be departing tomorrow morning.

Through these talks, the two leaders have held substantive discussions which is corresponding and commensurate with the depth and expanse of India-Japan engagement. Key topics that were discussed during the meeting, key topics of bilateral cooperation, included the domain of Defense and Security, Economic Partnership, Climate & Energy - including energy transition, People-to-People exchanges, Skill Development, Innovation. The two leaders also discussed regional issues of significance, including, as you just heard in the speech from Prime Minister Kishida, the Indo-Pacific. They also talked about their own respective priorities. Prime Minister explained at length India’s priorities for G20 and he heard in turn Prime Minister Kishida’s priorities and Japan’s priorities for G7. These two also formed an important component of bilateral conversation.

In terms of concrete outcomes of the visit, there were two documents that were signed on the sidelines. One was renewal of Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) on Japanese Language that was originally signed in 2017 essentially focussing on higher level language learning. And second document which was signed was Exchange of Notes for the 4th tranche instalment of JICA ODA Loan of JPY 300 Billion on Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Railway Project, roughly INR 18,000 crores. We also announced 2023 as "India-Japan Year of Tourism”. Prime Minister did express his desire with Prime Minister Kishida to declare the next year as the year of youth exchanges between the two countries. Ministry of Environment of Japan and Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change of India, they besides these two agreements also signed an Aide Memoire essentially on the Joint Crediting Mechanism (JCM) that has been under discussion for quite some time between the two countries.

PM Kishida, as you all heard in the remarks by two Prime Ministers to the press, invited Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi for the G7 Summit in Hiroshima in May this year. Hon’ble PM has accepted the invitation. I would close here and if there are any questions, we will try and take them. Thank you.

Shri Arindam Bagchi, Official Spokesperson: Thank you very much sir. Please introduce yourself and the organization that you represent before asking the question.

Yeshi Seli: This is Yeshi Seli from The New Indian Express. Sir PM Kishida had said that there are many unexploited regions in Northeast which could be collaborated upon. Can you elaborate a little on that? And also what are the joint exercises he's spoken about between the US, Japan and India.

Shri Arindam Bagchi, Official Spokesperson: Where did he mentioned this? In his talk? Okay. We just had the talk. We’ll have to look at that.

Ryosuke Hanada: Hi, I'm Ryosuke Hanada from Japanese news agency Nikkei. And I would like to ask about the bullet train project. Did the two leaders agree on the schedule of the start of the schedule of the bullet train? Yeah.

Shri Arindam Bagchi, Official Spokesperson: Schedule of launch of the bullet train?

Ryosuke Haneda: Yeah

Sidhant: Hi sir, Sidhant from WION. My question is, was Chinese aggressiveness with India, with Japan part of the conversation between the two Prime Ministers?

Huma Siddiqui: I’m Huma Siddiqui from the Financial Express. I just wanted to check, in the defense you talked about the two leaders discussing defense and security. So did they also talk about joint production and did Japan offered any new technology to India as far as defense is concerned?

Shri Arindam Bagchi, Official Spokesperson: Offer new technology. I think we'll come around.

Shri Vinay Kwatra, Foreign Secretary: I, Yeshi, couldn’t quite capture the preciseness of, you know, your question on the joint exercises. My understanding is that what they spoke about was the, you know, we do multiple training programs as part of our bilateral and regional engagement, which is different from the training and exercises that we do in the field of defense. So, I think what you're perhaps referring to is there is a set of recent exercises that took place between India and Japan, which I think for the first time also involved the two Air Force of the countries, so I think that was the reference. Training, of course, is a larger issue in terms of capacity building and depending upon the domain of the training cooperation that you would talk about, it would include different partners. In this case the reference that you're making to US is perhaps relating to that. But I think the reference to the exercises that was made in the discussion was more about the joint India-Japan military exercises, in this case the most recent being Veer Guardian which is essentially involving Air Force exercises for the first time.

On the Northeast question, you know, it is not something new. India and Japan have been talking about and the larger vision of Act East for us in a sub-segment of how India and Japan can cooperate on this issue, which essentially strengthens three, four key aspects of regional sub-regional and bilateral engagement, which links it through and through as part of Act East. So there for example, how do you build connectivity projects which link India's Northeast to let's say with the rest of the countries which fall under the Act East framework. Bangladesh is one of the very important partners there. Several of the projects that we are doing for example through Myanmar, Multi-Modal Kaladan Transport Project and other such road projects, bridge projects, which essentially link India through the rest of the Northeast going further eastwards. This has been an ongoing point not just of discussion between India and Japan, but frankly has been a point of substantive cooperation. We do an annual mechanism for this and the next meeting of that mechanism is going to be held if I'm not wrong towards the end of next month, which is co-chaired by the Japanese Ambassador here and Foreign Secretary as an institution from the Foreign Ministry. We essentially bring together all the stakeholders of the Northeast together and then see how partnership projects, including development cooperation projects, infrastructure cooperation projects, etc., can be sort of moved onto that.

Now with regard to the question on the bullet train, I think from our friend from the Japanese media, I think there are many aspects of India-Japan cooperation when it comes to high-speed railway network, one is the project itself. And as I just mentioned to you that the fourth tranche of the loan agreement between India and Japan was signed during this visit. And both leaders took assessment of the current status of the implementation of the project, which I think is progressing well. The leaders also assessed that this project is not only crucial to build industrial cooperation between the two countries but also it has a very strong link with the technology cooperation between the two countries. I think the HSR project is not just a high-speed train project, it is also a very high impact technology cooperation project. I think both leaders made that assessment and assessed the current status of its progress, which as I said has been progressing very well. A specific timeline of launch, etc. did not come up in the conversation between the two leaders.

Sidhant, to your question on China, the two leaders as I mentioned during their luncheon meeting also spoke about the ongoing developments in our region and also globally and naturally as part of those discussions, they spoke about the challenges that we face in the region, one. Two, how India and Japan and other like-minded countries can work together to address those challenges. Three, not just focus on challenges but also focus on cooperation, particularly in the wider expanse of Indo-Pacific, how do you take the other countries of the Indo-Pacific together and that is cut across several domains, so for example how do you partner within the Indo-Pacific to build resilient and trustworthy supply chains, for example how do you come together to mitigate some of the challenges that the development template of many of the countries within Indo-Pacific face in terms of the debt burden etc. So all that formed part of a larger broad platform of discussion insofar as the region and sub-region specifically and the larger field of Indo-Pacific is concerned.

Huma Siddiqui Ji, to your question on the Defense Security elements, the two Prime Ministers did speak about very successful meeting of the 2+2, that's the Defense Ministers and Foreign Ministers together meeting, I think it was sometime last year. But when it came to different segments of cooperation in the field of Defense, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi clearly put on the table that one of the areas of a very strong cooperation between India and Japan could be co-innovation, co-design, co-creation, and you know these words are not put across in terms of these discussions as branding words. These are words which have a very strong underpinning, policy underpinning on the Indian side of Atmanirbharatha in the field of Defense and Atmanirbharatha not as an isolationist feature, but Atmanirbharatha which can be built in partnership with other countries and in this case that partnership and that partner particular in this case being Japan. They did speak about what more India and Japan can do going forward. No specific equipment or platforms were discussed but technology as a wider spectrum, you know, how do you work on technology to move as bilateral partnership. And exercises I've already spoken about, training definitely, but there is larger field of, you know, research, design, creation and the spectrum of what you can do in the field of defense is actually very large indeed. Thank you.

Akhilesh: Sir, I'm Akhilesh Suman from Sansad TV. As you said that you talked about G7 priorities and G20 priorities. So what are the converging points between the priorities of both the countries, I mean, the leadership of the both the countries? And was there any unanimity of view on Russia-Ukraine war?

Shri Arindam Bagchi, Official Spokesperson: Sorry. Unanimity of view?

Akhilesh: View on Russia Ukraine.

Speaker 1: Sir, during the Foreign Ministers’ Meeting of the Quad, the Japanese Foreign Minister had given a reference to The Beatles and spoken about how they can work together but also with others. Today, again, we have seen Prime Minister Kishida talking about expanding cooperation in the Indo-Pacific. Has Japan expressed its desire to include more countries in the Quad? And sir, second question is not related to Japan but pertinent at the moment because there are reports right now that the Indian Consulate in San Francisco has been vandalized by some Khalistani groups. Would you respond to that because we have seen these incidents happening in some parts of the country, in fact, in UK, the DCM was also summoned?

Shri Arindam Bagchi, Official Spokesperson: That's not really in the domain of this, but I'll let FS decide.

Shashank: Thank you for your time, Foreign Secretary. I'm Shashank Mattoo from the Mint. So the Prime Minister mentioned semiconductors as a particular area of focus for India and Japan in the field of emerging technology. Could you give us some sense of any specific investments that the Japanese are willing to put on the table given their strengths in chemicals, in particular parts of the semiconductor supply chain? Thank you.

Pranay Upadhyaya: Sir, Pranay Upadhyaya ABP News se. Mera ek chota sa clarification Akhilesh ji ke sawaal se aage hee hai ki kya Ruse Ukraine yudh ko khatam karne ko lekar prayason par koi baat hui dono netaonke bheech mein? Aur G7 ka jo rawayya hai woh G20 ke leadership pe aur Bharat mein jo mejbani mein hone wala summit hai usko prabhaavit na kare isko lekar kya kuch sehmati bani hai? Aur ek chota sa extension sir is cheez ko lekar hee ki 2019 ke baad se Bharat aur Japan ne milkar teesre desh ke developmental projects pe kai baar baat kee thi toh kya us par kuch pragati hui hai?

(Questioned in Hindi: Approximate translation): Sir, Pranay Upadhyay from ABP News. Taking forward Akhilesh ji's question, I have a small clarification to ask - whether there was any discussion between the two leaders on the efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine war? And whether the G7's attitude will affect the G20 Summit to be hosted in India under India’s leadership? And a small extension Sir, regarding this fact that since 2019, India and Japan have talked several times on the issue of development projects in third countries, so has there been any progress on that?

Srinjoy: Sir, Times Now. You did mention defense cooperation. Japan has committed, In fact, Prime Minister Kishida himself has committed to doubling the defense budget. If that actually happens, Japan will be the third largest spender on defense in the world. Now keeping that in mind and keeping all the issues about cooperation that you've spoken about, is there any plan for Japan, or did this come up during the discussions of investing in the defense structures in India and making not just for India but for the world?

Shri Arindam Bagchi, Official Spokesperson:
I think, sir, answered that question no?

Srinjoy: Not really. And also, sir, did the problem in Ladakh come up during the discussions?

Tawqeer Hussain: Tawqeer Hussain from Yomiuri Shimbun. Can I get the reaction to the Kishida's speech where he presented his Indo-Pacific plan?

Shri Arindam Bagchi, Official Spokesperson: It was 15 minutes ago, 10 minutes, we're reading the speech.

Shri Vinay Kwatra, Foreign Secretary: Aap apna reaction batayein. Main tod zyada usme ruchi rakhta hoon. (Answered in Hindi: Approximate translation): Tell me your reaction. I am more interested in that.

Sudhi: Sir, Sudhi Ranjan from Bloomberg. Just an associated question with what Pranay asked. We're getting to hear a lot about cooperation between G7 and G20. Is it that, you know, Japan is asking us to align our, India's position more? And if so, what is the reaction?

Shri Arindam Bagchi, Official Spokesperson: Similar to the first question. I think that's the first.

Shri Vinay Kwatra, Foreign Secretary
: I think keval ek hee vyakti jisne khade hoke prashan pucha toh pehle mein usi ke prashan ka uttar de deta hoon theek rahega. Toh Pranay ji jo aap ka prashan tha Ukraine, G7, G20, samaveshi vicharadhaara, prathamiktayein… Bloomberg ka bhi thoda lagbag ek hee prashan hai. Aap ka dusra prashan teesre deshon mein sahayog sahakarya ko leke hai. Dekhiye jahan tak G7 aur G20 ka prashan hai, jaise ki maine apni prarambhik tippani mein bhi kaha is samay G20 ki adhyakshatha Bharat ke paas hai aur G7 ki adhyakshatha Japan ke paas hai. Toh jab G7 aur G20 ki apni apni adhyakshathaon ko leke baat hui toh dono netaon ne apni apni praramiktaon kya hai unki, toh Bharatiya Pradhan Mantri ne bade spashtaa roop se G20 ki Bharat ke adhyakshatha ki hamari kya prathamikta hai woh spasht roop se Japan ke Pradhan Mantri ke saamne bilkul vistar purvak rakhi hai.

Isi prakar se Japanese Pradhan Mantri ne bhi jo unki prathamiktayein G7 ki hai woh samne rakhi. Swabhavik hai ki jab do shikar varta ke antargat jab do netaon ke beech mein vaarta hoti hai, toh un prathamiktaon mein saanjhe prashan kya hai unke bare mein vaarta hoti hai. Dekhiye G7 ka jo agenda hai woh G20 ke agenda se bhinna hai kyunki jis tarah se G7 ki sanarachana hai aur G20 ki jo sanarachana hai, naa keval deshon ki sanarachan balki jo agenda ki bhi sanarachana hai woh kaafi alag hai. Lekin ek baat toh isme spasht roop se hai, dono netaon mein sehamati thi kee ki jahan tak global south ki voice ka prashan hai, jahan tak unke vicharon ka prashan hai, jahan tak unke vaani ka prashan hai un sab ko G20 ke agenda ke roop mein kisi na kisi prakar se shaamil karna yeh pure vaishvik hith mein hai isko leke ek spasht roop se charcha hui. Baaki jaise maine kaha ki Japanese pradhan mantri ne unki G7 ki kya prathamiktayein hai woh samne rakhi aur Bharatiya pradhan mantri ne G20 ki prathamikta rakhe. Swabhavik hai ki ek achcha avasar hai ki dono neta jo hai na keval apni in in sanstahon ke prati unki soch unki prathamikta kya hai usko ek doosre ke saamne pradarshit karein prakashit karein balki agar is varta ke baad agar kuch sahayog samanvay ke kuch points nikalte hai to usko aage le jaane ki baat woh baad ki baat hai, lekin jaise ki maine kaha dono sanstahon ki jo sanarachanaye hai woh alag hai.

Jahan tak teesre deshon mein sahayog aur sahakarya ka aap ka jo prashan tha, dekhiye ye jo Bharat-Japan sahayog poore Indo-Pacific kshetra mein regional parts mein, sub-regional segments mein, larger global Indo-Pacific segment mein, usmein kahi na kahi pe Bharat aur Japan sahayog kis prakar se dusre deshon ki sahayata kar sakta hai yeh vaarta mein nihit hai apne aap mein. Ab uska project ka kya swaroop ho, woh us swaroop ko aage kaisa badaya jaaye, woh desh desh se bhinna hoga, toh isko mere hisaab se ek project ke roop mein na dekha jaaye balki ek concept ke roop mein dekha jaaye kyunki us concept se jo phir project ubar ke aate hai woh naanaa prakaar ke hosakte hain aur unka mukhya aadhaar yeh hoga ki kis teesre desh ki kya avashyakta uske hisaab se aage badne ka.

(Answered in Hindi: Approximate translation): I think there is only one person who stood up and asked a question, so I will answer his question first. So Pranay ji which was your question - Ukraine, G7, G20 inclusive ideology priorities… Bloomberg also have almost the same question. Your second question is about cooperation in third countries. See, as far as the G7 and G20 are concerned, as I said in my opening remarks, at present the G20 is chaired by India and the G7 is chaired by Japan, so when it came to talking about their respective presidencies of G7 and G20, the Prime Minister of India clearly laid out in front of the Prime Minister of Japan, priorities for India's G20 presidency.

Similarly, the Japanese Prime Minister also put forth his priorities for the G7. It is natural that when talks are held between two leaders in the context of two summits, then what are the common points in the priorities, they are discussed. See, the agenda of the G7 is different from the agenda of the G20 because the way the G7 and the G20 are structured, not only the structure of the countries, but also the structure of the agenda is very different. But one thing is clear in this, both the leaders agree, as far as the question of the voice of the Global South, as far as their views, as far as their voice are concerned, it is in the global interest to include all of them in some way or the other under the agenda of the G20. There was a clear discussion about this. Like I said that the Japanese Prime Minister put forth his G7 priorities and the Indian Prime Minister put forth the priorities of the G20. Naturally, it was a good opportunity for both the leaders to present their thinking, their priorities regarding the two Summits. If some points of cooperation and coordination emerge after this discussion, then it is a matter of taking it forward at a later stage. But as I said, the structure of both the institutions is different.

As far as your question of cooperation in third countries is concerned, the India-Japan cooperation in the entire Indo-Pacific region, in regional parts, in the sub-regional segment, in the larger global Indo-Pacific segment, how India and Japan cooperation can help other countries is inherent in the discussion. What will be the structure of the project, how it will be taken forward, it will vary from country to country. So it should not be seen in terms of project, rather as a concept, because the projects that emerge from that concept can be of different types and their main basis will be to move ahead in accordance with the need of the third country.

Akhilesh ji, your question on the G20 and G7, I think I have pretty much answered, which is that both leaders focused on their respective priorities during their Presidency of their organizations, which they are running, India for G20, Japan for G7, and it is very important to develop a clear understanding of those priorities, of the perspective behind those priorities, of what the key driving forces are for those priorities and see how, you know, those priorities can also enrich the discussions in the two platforms. So when my Prime Minister speaks about digital transformation, digital public goods, sustainable lifestyles, elements like these being the priorities of G20, not just for India, for G20, but also for the larger global South, obviously, that can enrich the agenda for the G7 discussions also. So I think I have answered this in detail, but just as a part elaboration of that one.

Maha ji, to your question on the, rather your comment on The Beatles etc., look I'm not musically inclined particularly to the western music. So I would rather not comment on that, but I think suffice to say that the question of expansion of Quad in this conversation did not come up, one. Two, all the Quad members are very clear in their mind that Quad needs to undergo a very, very appropriate phase of consolidation before, you know, we look to anything other than Quad. I'll leave it at that.

With regard to the, you know, UK incident, we have already put out yesterday evening, late evening India's response to it in which the UK Deputy High Commissioner was summoned and was one, demanded an explanation. Two, asked, the culprits and the perpetrators of what happened at London yesterday, to be quickly arrested and prosecuted. We launched a strong protest and also clearly indicated to the British authorities for the need for them to put up adequate security at the UK High Commission.

Shashank, to your question, I think on semiconductors was the question. See, as I mentioned this domain of innovation, technology, manufacturing, the triangulation of these three of which semiconductors is one of the very important domains because it captures the research segment, obviously because of the very nature of the semiconductors. It captures the innovation part of it, technology part of it and the coming together of the capacities of India and Japan for its manufacturing in India.

Prime minister did put this forward very strongly and I would add the related element of skilled manpower, especially as available on the Indian side, how that interfaces with this segment. So this was an important topic of discussion between the two Prime Ministers. Not just that, it's also an important topic of, important element of cooperation between India and Japan. We have been talking about cooperation in the field of semiconductors for quite some time, both in the research and development segment, one. Two, in terms of modernization of existing segments in India. Three, in terms of tapping the skill base available. And fourth, naturally in terms of investment which flow into it.

Srinjoy, to your question, which I think is partly a continuation of Humaji's question on 2+2 defense etc., Prime Minister Modi and Prime Minister Kishida talked about when they spoke about co-innovation, co-design, co-creation, one of the key elements of the conversation also was investment collaboration, investment partnership in this space, and Prime Minister Modi made it very clear to Prime Minister Kishida that when it comes to private sector investments in the field of Defense, when it comes to Foreign Direct Investment in the field of Defense, those two sectors are completely open in India. The Japanese companies are not only invited, but are also encouraged to harness the opportunity and advantages that are inherent in the Indian manufacturing ecosystem, the policy framework liberalization that government of India has undertaken in the field of Defense, link it to Make in India, not just for India but also for the rest of the world, also do it in a manner that the products manufactured here are part of not just regional supply chains but also global supply chains and also which helps in building trusted supply chains in the field of Defense

I think…Well, as I said, you have yourself heard the Prime Minister of Japan very clearly speak on his vision for the free and open Indo-Pacific. I think his speech speaks for itself. I don't think it's appropriate for me to comment on such an important policy statement by a leader of a foreign visiting dignitary.

Ladakh specifically did not come up for discussion, but the two Prime Ministers, as I said, did speak about challenges that both our countries face in the region and also how we can work together to strengthen our partnership.

Shri Arindam Bagchi, Official Spokesperson: Thank you very much, sir. Thank you also to Ambassador Sibi George and Joint Secretary, Dr. Shilpak Ambule. Thank you all for joining. Good afternoon.

Shri Vinay Kwatra, Foreign Secretary: Thank you very much.

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