International - India & World   

India, Japan to raise ties

P. S. Suryanarayana

SINGAPORE : India and Japan have evinced keen interest to tone up their engagement by enhancing the "strategic orientation" of their existing "global partnership." They have also set their sights on attaining the "full potential" of this relationship across a wide spectrum ranging from trade and economy to defence and security issues.

The two sides are understood to have explored the possibilities in this regard when National Security Adviser M. K. Narayanan called on Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and other leaders in Tokyo earlier this week. Mr. Narayanan, who left Tokyo on Wednesday, discussed with them the broad agenda of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's prospective visit to Japan later this year. India's Ambassador to Japan, H. K. Singh, participated in these talks.

With 2007 being considered for designation as the Japan-India Friendship Year, the political thrust of the current exercise was to turn Dr. Singh's planned visit into a landmark event on the bilateral front, according to official sources.

Efforts were on at this stage to create an ambience in which both sides would be able to address issues of each other's concern.

While Japan, like India, is aspiring to become a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, an issue of particular concern to New Delhi is that of access to the high-tech aspects of civil nuclear energy. Japan's membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group is said to be a factor of importance to India.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Let talks be held in a timeframe: Colombo
Pakistan presses U.S. for civil nuclear energy pact
U.S. bypassing me: Maliki
Face-to-face with Putin
To carry on round the world
Full face transplant
Ahmadinejad calls for a baby boom
Tension in north, east
Iraq a policy disaster: U.K.
Shock over skull photos
Anti-graft forum
Change of policy or time-off for tit-for-tat?
India, Japan to raise ties
An Indian among Rolex Enterprise Award winners
Indian public want peace: Musharraf

Copyright © 2006, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu