Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida tonight pledged an investment of five trillion yen ($42bn) in India over five years in a summit-level meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Japanese Prime Minister is on a two-day official visit to India on an invitation from Prime Minister Modi. Five MOUs were signed during the high-level summit in which Prime Minister Modi and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida along with the high-level officials were present.

On this occasion, an MOU was signed between Suzuki Corporation and the government of Gujarat for setting up an electric car manufacturing unit there.

In a press statement, the Japanese prime minister said that India and Japan’s diplomatic relations are now seventy-year strong and that the two countries share close ties and have the same values of democracy and rule of law. He said that he had a very fruitful meeting with Prime Minister Modi and discussed several bilateral as well as regional and international issues.

Commenting on the world’s present state he said that the Russian attack on Ukraine has shaken the roots of the world order and it is high time that India and Japan work together to make the United Nations security council more effective and ensure a nuclear-weapon-free world.

“We would never endorse any attempt by anybody to change the state boundaries forcibly.” He said. “The two countries would ensure that the region was a peaceful one,” he added.

On the economic front, the Japanese PM reiterated his support to the mega projects underway in India and that Japan was committed to the economic development of India, especially in the Northeast.

The Japanese PM also hoped that Indo Japan cooperation would further increase in the fields of cyber security and clean energy. On a lighter note, Kishida said that now Japanese apples would be available in India and Japanese people would be able to enjoy Indian Mangoes. He wished for more people to people interaction, especially among the youth. He also invited Prime Minister Modi to the Quad Summit.

Prime Minister Modi in his address thanked Japanese PM Kishida and said that he is an old friend of India and that Japan is one of the biggest investors in India. Japan, he said, has invested heavily in India’s flagship infrastructure projects like the Mumbai Ahmedabad Bullet train which is the testimony of strong India Japan relations.

Prime Minister of Japan Fumio Kishida is visiting New Delhi at Modi’s invitation for the 14th India-Japan annual summit. Several bilateral issues as well as global developments, particularly the Russia-Ukraine conflict were discussed by the two leaders during the summit. This was the Japanese PM’s first meeting with Modi in his new role. He had met the Indian leader when he was Japan’s foreign minister.

“I am heading out on a visit to India and then Cambodia. Russia’s aggression against Ukraine is an outrage that undermines the very foundation of the order of the international community, including Asia,” Kishida said before embarking on his visit to India.

The Japanese PM added, “With Prime Minister Modi of India, I plan to confirm our intention to work towards the success of the Quad summit meeting among the leaders of Japan, India, Australia, and the United States to be held in Tokyo within the next few months, as well as our cooperation.”

Earlier the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said both sides were looking to deepen the partnership. “India and Japan have multifaceted cooperation within the ambit of their ‘Special Strategic and Global Partnership’. The summit will provide an opportunity for both sides to review and strengthen the bilateral cooperation in diverse areas as well as exchange views on regional and global issues of mutual interest to advance their partnership for peace, stability and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond,” it said.

The last India-Japan summit took place in Tokyo in October 2018. The planned December 2019 visit to India by then-Japanese leader Shinzo Abe was shelved owing to massive protests in Guwahati, the venue of the summit, over the citizenship law. After that, the annual summit mechanism was disrupted due to the COVID-19 pandemic.