In message to China, India, Japan stress on transparent development financing

Modi on Tuesday joined several other world leaders to attend the state funeral of Japan’s former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Tokyo

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida on Tuesday stressed on transparent and comparable development finance, sending out a message to China, which has been drawing flak for its predatory lending practices that landed several small developing nations in Asia and Africa in debt-traps.

The two prime ministers also exchanged views on the Russia-Ukraine conflict and reaffirmed the importance of peaceful settlement of disputes.

Modi on Tuesday joined several other world leaders to attend the state funeral of Japan’s former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was assassinated at Nara City on July 8, in Tokyo. He honoured the memory of Abe, who he considered a dear friend and a great champion of India-Japan partnership.

He had a private meeting with Abe’s wife Akie Abe at the Akasaka Palace and conveyed his heartfelt condolences to her.

Read | With flowers and a gun salute, Japan bids farewell to slain Shinzo Abe at state funeral

He had a meeting with the Japanese Prime Minister too.

They renewed commitment towards further strengthening the India-Japan Special Strategic and Global Partnership and in working together in the region and in various international groupings and institutions, according to the Ministry of External Affairs.

Kishida said that he would continue to work with Modi to realise a “free and open Indo-Pacific”, building on the diplomatic legacies of Abe.

Abe had delivered his landmark “Confluence of the Two Seas” speech at a joint session of both the houses of Parliament of India during his first visit to India as prime minister of Japan in August 2007. The speech had laid the foundation of the concept of Indo-Pacific and a larger cooperation between India and Japan as well as other nations in building an “arc of democracy” to counter the hegemonic aspirations of China. His efforts had been instrumental in launching and reviving the Quad – a coalition of India, Japan, Australia and the United States – to work together with the vision of a “free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific”.

He had again visited India 13 months after starting his second tenure as Prime Minister as Manmohan Singh’s government had invited him to be the chief guest in the Republic Day ceremony in January 2014.

Modi, who took over as the prime minister in May 2014, developed a special relationship with Abe ever since he chose Tokyo as his first foreign destination beyond neighbourhood. During the visit in September 2014, he and Abe elevated India-Japan relations to a “Special Strategic and Global Partnership”. They met altogether 12 times as prime ministers of India and Japan, including five annual summits, between 2014 and 2018 and expanded bilateral cooperation in diverse areas like civil nuclear energy, maritime security, bullet trains and infrastructure.

Kishida told Modi on Tuesday that the period from this year, which marked the 70th anniversary of the establishment of Japan-India diplomatic relations, to next year, when Japan and India would respectively assume the G7 and G20 presidencies, would offer an excellent opportunity to further strengthen the “Japan-India Special Strategic and Global Partnership”.