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Japan is good for South Asia. Japan is good for Asia.
Japanese assistance never comes with tricky, destabilizing political strings.....since Japan is not a meddling nosy power like the USA or UK.
Sadly, for some reason Japanese/India trade volume is piddly.......in comparison to Japanese/Malaysian trade or Japanese/Indonesian trade.
Even though India is a far more important country in the world, containing millions of engineers with significant ability who are scooped up by the USA annually into the back and beyond of their R&D, contributing to the USA GDP, and technology bank (34% of Apple engineers).
WHY CAN'T Nippon/India trade jump from a mere $18.5 billion (I don't know the exact figure 2014) to something like $300 billion by 2020?
This would be REAL cooperation between two Asian giants.
IF The American economy collapses as I predicted for 2015--2016, then Japanese exports has to go somewhere.....why not to India?
Bullet trains are fine, since such projects are related to politics, then the Chinese offer should also be considered. India can manage three different bullet train systems...Chinese, Japanese and Indian.
Massive new Japanese investment in India please......new laws, regulations, modalities formulated with Japanese advice and assistance which formalises investment in India by Japan.
This is all in line with the Congress 'Look East' policy...perfectly logical.
There are little or no Indian engineers in Japan.
There are no Indian scientists/engineers in Japan that were humiliated and abused for 36 years to their last day in that country.
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Modi eyes breakthrough nuclear pact on Japan trip
By Times of India.
India is hoping to win Japanese backing for a nuclear energy pact during a visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and lure investment into its $85 billion market while addressing Japan's concern about nuclear proliferation.India has been pushing for an agreement with Japan on the lines of a 2008 deal with the United States under which India was allowed to import US nuclear fuel and technology without giving up its military nuclear programme.
But Japan wants explicit guarantees from India, which has not signed the international Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, to strictly limit nuclear tests and to allow more intrusive inspections of its nuclear facilities to ensure that spent fuel is not diverted to make bombs.
India, which
sees its weapons as a deterrent against nuclear-armed neighbours China
and Pakistan, has sought to meet Japan's concerns and over the past
month the two sides have speeded up negotiations ahead of Modi's visit.READ ALSO: Modi's Japan visit could fast-track bullet train project
Modi and Abe will not seal an agreement at next week's summit, TV Tokyo reported on Thursday, but the meeting will be closely watched for any progress toward a pact.
Japanese officials were tight-lipped about prospects for a nuclear deal.Modi travels to Japan on Saturday for a five-day visit, his first major bilateral trip since taking over in May. The visit is being billed as an attempt by the two democracies to balance the rising weight of China across Asia.
READ ALSO: Modi hails India-Japan ties, says looking forward to visit
Abe is keen to expand Japan's network of security partnerships with countries such as Australia and India to cope with the challenge presented by China.
The two leaders will agree to have their
countries jointly produce mixed rare earth minerals and metals, key
elements in defence industry components and modern technology, the
Nikkei business daily said on Thursday.Another focus is infrastructure, with the Indian leader seeking Japanese backing for the high-speed 'bullet' trains he promised to voters in his election campaign.
But it is the nuclear pact that could transform ties
in a way the deal with the United States did by establishing India as a
strategic partner, although nuclear commerce with the United States has
since floundered because of concern over India's liability laws.
Japanese companies are also reluctant to step in without clarity on
nuclear disaster compensation, especially in the wake of the Fukushima
catastrophe of March 2011, the world's worst since Chernobyl in 1986.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a meeting with president of Asian Development Bank, Takehiko Nakao, in New Delhi on Wednesday.(PTI Photo)
'FOUNDATIONS'
A civil nuclear energy pact with India would give Japanese nuclear technology companies such as Toshiba Corp and Hitachi Ltd access to India's fast-growing market as they seek opportunities overseas.
India operates 20 mostly small reactors at six sites with a capacity of 4,780 MW, or 2 percent of its total power capacity, according to the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited. The government hopes to increase its nuclear capacity to 63,000 MW by 2032 by adding nearly 30 reactors.
India is considering a Japanese proposal for a separate commitment not to test nuclear weapons over and above a self-imposed moratorium it declared after testing in 1998.
Another possibility is that Modi gives a personal assurance to Abe on India's nuclear weapons programme to help allay concern in Japan, the only country to have suffered a nuclear attack and which has since been a champion of non-proliferation and disarmament.
"India and Japan are laying the foundations of a bigger deal," said former vice chief of Indian army Lieutenant General A.S. Lamba, an expert on ties with Japan.
"It's no use rushing into something that fails to get off the ground, which is what happened to the India-US agreement. This is being constructed slowly. This is a defining moment." If you can handle Asha in Kimono prancing around in a public park, with bemused Japanese looking on, and Rafi sahib singing in English......'Japan...Lovely Tokyo..'
