New Delhi
14 May 2007
India on Monday told Japan that the "time has come for strategic
congruence" between them as both countries enjoyed a lot of common, shared, political
and economic, values, the spokesman of Ministry of External Affairs said.
Briefing reporters after the delegation-level talks between Foreign Secretary Shivshankar
Menon and Japanese Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Shotaro Yachi, the spokesman
said that Mr Menon's remarks about strategic congruence were "in general terms".
Both sides also "spent considerable amount of time" on regional issues and discussed
the East Asia architecture "in some detail". (The next East Summit Summit will be held in
Singapore in November.)
Mr Menon briefed his Japanese counterpart about the situation in South Asia and Mr
Yachi, in turn, gave a detailed briefing on North Korea. Iran, India's relation with China
and the Group of Four's efforts for the United Nations Security Council reform were
discussed. "[We] agreed to continue to work closely together in New Delhi and New
York," the spokesman said. World Trade Organisation and the Doha round and climate
change were also taken up. "The foreign secretary at their (Japan) request briefed on the
negotiations with the United States (on civilian nuclear cooperation agreement). Japan is
fully aware of our concerns ... of India's need for energy," he said. (Japan is a member of
the Nuclear Suppliers Group.)
The spokesman said that Mr Menon and Mr Yachi discussed the bilateral
Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement that is being negotiated. The next
round of talks on this issue will be held in New Delhi on June 25. "There is a broad
agreement on the modalities (of CEPA) and the pace will pick up (in subsequent
meeting)," he said.
The first bilateral meeting on high technology trade will take place in June. The India-
Japan High Level Energy Dialogue will meet in July when five working groups will hold
substantive discussions. Also in July, both sides will launch their strategic economic
dialogue to sharpen focus on special economic collaboration projects.
The spokesman said that the Japanese side has proposed to start a Japan-India
strategic dialogue group on broad policy issues. India has accepted the proposal in
principle and suggested that the group meet first at the official level. "... [and then let us]
see where it goes," the spokesman said. Japan also said that a mentors group
comprising international academics be set up for making the Nalanda University an
institution of excellence.
India and Japan have also decided to promote people-to-people contacts like more
student exchanges and easing of visa for business people and tourists and undertake
science and technology cooperation in bioinformatics, biotechnology and
nanotechnology.
The two projects that are actively being processed -- dedicated railway freight corridor
and the Delhi-Mumbai industrial corridor -- were reviewed. The spokesman said that
there was considerable progress by the Indian side on the dedicated freight corridor
project and India hoped to be able to make a proposal to the Japanese side. On the
industrial corridor, he said that both sides were working towards finalising a concept
paper.
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