Modi and Abe welcomed the regular and institutionalised engagement through the annual Defence Ministerial Dialogue, the National Security Advisers’ dialogue, the ‘2+2’ Dialogue, the Defence Policy Dialogue, and the Service-to-Service staff talks. In other areas, Japan has reiterated strong support for initiatives such as ‘Make in India’, ‘Digital India’, ‘Skill India’, ‘Smart City’, ‘Clean India’, and ‘Start-Up India’ and appreciated Modi’s economic reforms, especially the introduction of GST. Japan is also concerned about the fact that in the last three years since 2015, the Indian government has made unilateral changes in the Bullet Train project without consulting the other side. Despite these concerns on the ‘Bullet Train’ project, the fact remains that India and Japan have shared security, economic, regional and other interests. On the security front, efforts to institutionalise the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QUAD) would help in further boosting ties.

Source: dna May 08, 2018 02:54 UTC