Tokyo [Japan]: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Monday highlighted the growing economic ties between India and Japan, highlighting an investment target of Yen 5 trillion, that is USD 42 billion by 2027 in India.
Addressing the press briefing in Tokyo, Jaishankar elaborated on the past 10 years of development in India-Japan ties under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said, “If you look at the last 10 years, we have on average built 8 new airports every year, about 1.5 -2 new metros in new cities every year, we build 28 km of highways every day, we lay railway tracks of 8 km every day. If you look at our education and skills, the educational institutions have doubled in the last 10 years and it is no accident that there are now 1,600 global capability centres across India that generate exports of more than USD 100 billion every year.”
Addressing the media briefing, Jaishankar said, “I am a veteran of three decades of India-Japan ties. I have been associated with Quad since it started in 2017 but also when in 2007. India-Japan relations have come a very long way since 25 years but mainly since 2014.”
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, foreign ministers of Japan Yoko Kamikawa and Australia’s Penny Wong as well as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken participated in the Quad foreign ministers’ meeting held on July 29 in Tokyo.
The EAM also spoke on the Japanese businesses in India and asserted that the country would like to increase its investment in Japan. He said, “There are 1,400 Japanese businesses going on in India. We would like to see that number grow, and we have an investment target of Y=5 trillion, that is $42 billion by 2027 in India.”
He added further, “Japanese companies in many ways triggered the automobile revolution in India. The partnership was responsible for the proliferation of metros. We are right now engaged in an important high-speed railway project and certainly global priorities like semiconductors, AI or EVs and green energy offer great potential for our cooperation…
These are today the focus of our conversations both bilaterally and in the Quad, because they do have a larger implication. Our efforts would be strengthened by deeper networking of our business communities, which we would like to promote.”
Jaishankar also said, “It is important for our partners in Japan to appreciate the scale and intensity of the changes which are underway in India to give you a sense of the change.”
Jaishankar also said that India is capable in different sectors like semiconductors, electric vehicles, space, drones, green energy. “We are not just a more attractive economic partner but we are also a more capable one and in a range of domains in areas like semiconductors, electric vehicles, space, drones, green energy. India is today seeking to leapfrog it has the ambitions and increasingly the ability to become a global partner for many advanced economies…”
Meanwhile, foreign ministers of Quad countries- Australia, India, Japan and the US – on Monday reaffirmed that India will host the Summit later this year.”We look forward to India hosting the next Quad Leaders’ Summit later this year, and to the United States hosting the next Quad Foreign Ministers’ meeting in 2025,” a joint statement after the meeting held in Tokyo said.