Former Prime Minister of India - Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee

PRIME MINISTER SHRI ATAL BIHARI VAJPAYEE'S STATEMENT TO INDIAN MEDIA AT TOKYO

The Prime Minister, Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee made a statement to the Indian media at Tokyo today. Following is the text of the Prime Minister’s statement:

~I have completed three days of my official bilateral visit to Japan. They have been eventful and fruitful days for India-Japan relations. I am meeting a group of Japanese Parliamentarians this morning, and will convey to them our perspectives on the natural partnership between India and Japan. I am happy that I will call on His Majesty the Emperor of Japan at this time of joy for the Imperial family. It would be a fitting climax to my visit.

In my statement before my departure from New Delhi, I had expressed my view that the two main pillars of future India-Japan relations would be our economic cooperation and our strategic convergences. The joint declaration, which we issued last night, confirmed that this is a shared perception of India and Japan. The declaration set out the common perspectives of both our countries on a wide range of bilateral issues and global challenges.

Prime Minister Koizumi confirmed that Japan attaches importance to strengthening economic relations with India. We agreed to identify new areas for expansion of this cooperation. A Japanese Economic Mission will be visiting India soon to further this objective. A specific offer was made by Prime Minister Koizumi of Japanese assistance for projects to clean the Ganga and Jamuna rivers. We have welcomed this offer and suggested a joint committee to examine all aspects of this.

My delegation and I interacted with senior representatives of Japanese business and industry both in Osaka and in Tokyo. We conveyed India’s continued commitment to its second-generation reforms and outlined our future economic targets and priorities. We also assured them of our determination to address the procedural, administrative and legal obstacles experienced by Japanese investors.

We have decided on regular interactions between our Foreign Ministers, Defence Ministers, Finance Ministers and Ministers dealing with economic matters. The annual Comprehensive Security Dialogue will also include a dialogue on counter-terrorism. We agreed to enhance our defence exchanges.

We condemned terrorism and agreed that it cannot be justified wherever, whenever, and for whatever reason. Japan shares our conviction that the fight against global terrorism has to be comprehensive and sustained, with the objective of total elimination of terrorism everywhere.

India and Japan have virtually identical perspectives on Afghanistan. We agreed to cooperate closely with each other on the reconstruction of post-Taliban Afghanistan. India will participate in the international conference on Afghanistan being convened in Tokyo next month.

Our two countries have agreed to work together for an equitable distribution of the benefits from globalization. With India’s developmental experiences and Japan’s strong tradition of development assistance, there are obvious synergies between our two countries on this.

We agreed that the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations next year should be celebrated in a fitting manner. We are setting up a Joint Committee to work on this.

I am satisfied that my visit has contributed to adding new dimensions and meaningful content to the Global Partnership between India and Japan.