Indo-Japan ties scale new heights as Modi, Abe sign key agreements on bullet trains, Varanasi revamp

Tokyo: Japan and India, Asia's second and third largest economies signed five major agreements during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the east Asian nation. A deal on bringing Japan's high speed bullet trains to India signed between the 'two most important democracies of the world' remained one of the highlights of PM Modi's first bilateral visit.

Japan promised $33.8 billion assistance to India for the next five years towards funding next generation infrastructure projects, smart cities, rejuvenation of Ganga river and introduction of bullet trains.

However, the much anticipated nuclear energy accord could not be finalised between the two nations. Prime Minister assured that India would "accelerate talks" on the same in the coming days. He said, "I have instructed our officials to accelerate discussions with the goal of taking our strategic relation forward."

PM Modi briefed reporters on the five deals signed between India and Japan. These include health, clean energy, women development and roads, other than the Kyoto-Varanasi agreement.

Emphasising that the relations India shared with Japan were beyond economic ties, Modi said, "The 21st century belongs to Asia ... but how the 21st century will be depends on how strong and progressive India-Japan ties are."

The two nations also decided to "upgrade" and "strengthen" their defence cooperation as they asked officials to launch consultations to promote military equipment collaboration and accelerate discussions on modalities for the sale of Japanese US-2 amphibian aircraft.

"The two Prime Ministers reaffirmed the importance of defence relations between India and Japan in their strategic partnership and decided to upgrade and strengthen them," a joint statement issued after the talks said.