India and Japan pledged on Friday to carry out the Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed rail project and welcomed a memorandum of cooperation on specific skilled workers to be signed in the near future.
Both topics featured in the first telephone conversation between Japan’s new prime minister, Yoshihide Suga, and his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi. Suga said that he will promote bilateral cooperation on economic and security matters and work with India to achieve a free and open Indo-Pacific.
Days before a meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, which will be hosted by Japan, Suga also said that he will promote cooperation through the group. The Quad’s foreign ministers, which also includes Australia and the United States, are expected to meet in Tokyo in early October.
Suga replaced Shinzo Abe, who had established a close working relationship with Modi and had put considerable effort into reviving the Quad over the past three years.
The two prime ministers “affirmed their intention to move steadily forward on the high-speed rail project” and welcomed the fact that the memorandum of cooperation on specific skilled workers would be signed in the near future, according to a reading from the Ministry. Foreign Relations Office of Japan on the 25th – One minute conversation.
The two sides have finalized the text of the agreement on skilled skilled workers. India has focused on similar agreements with various countries to ensure better mobility of its trained professionals in fields such as information technology.
The commitment to India’s first bullet train project is significant as the company has been hit by delays and other problems, people familiar with the developments said on condition of anonymity. The 508 km project is being built with an 80% loan from Japan with an interest rate of 0.1% and a 15-year moratorium on repayments.
Although the target date for completion of the project was December 2023, it is now expected to be completed by the end of 2028. Several tenders for key aspects of the project were launched last year but have yet to be finalized, and the total cost of the link it is now expected to be more than the original estimate.
Suga “expressed his intention to promote bilateral cooperation in the fields of security, economy and economic cooperation, and to work with India to achieve a ‘free and open Indo-Pacific’,” the Japanese reading said.
He also said that he will promote cooperation in multilateral mechanisms such as the “Japan-Australia-India-United States and United Nations meetings, as well as on issues related to North Korea,” he added.
Modi and Suga agreed that the special strategic and global partnership between India and Japan has made “great strides in recent years” and expressed their intention to strengthen the relationship on the basis of mutual trust and shared values, according to a statement from the external agency. Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
They also agreed that the bilateral partnership is more relevant in light of current global challenges, such as the Covid-19 pandemic. “They emphasized that the economic architecture of a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific region must be based on resilient supply chains and in this context welcomed cooperation between India, Japan and other like-minded countries.” said the Indian statement.
Suga also mentioned that the bilateral relations have developed significantly “under the mutual trust between” Abe and Modi, and said that he too will continue to push forward the special partnership.
The two prime ministers shared the view that the annual India-Japan summit should resume after the pandemic-related situation improves. Modi invited Suga to visit India for the summit after the situation improved.
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