Japan-India Relations
Japan-India Summit Telephone Talk
March 9, 2021
On March 9, commencing at around 4:45 p.m. for approximately 40 minutes, Mr. SUGA Yoshihide, Prime Minister of Japan, held a summit telephone talk with H.E. Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India. The overview of the talk is as follows.
- The two leaders shared the recognition that cooperation towards realizing a Free and Open Indo-Pacific is becoming increasingly important and to this end, shared the view to steadily advance both Japan-India bilateral cooperation and Japan-Australia-India-U.S. quadrilateral cooperation.
- The two leaders exchanged views on Japan-India relations and concurred that they would continue their effort to materialize the “Japan-India Special Strategic and Global Partnership” through cooperation in such areas as security and defense, economic relationship including digital fields and people-to-peolpe exhanges. The two leaders also welcomed the progress on the high-speed rail project and the signing of the Memorandum of Cooperation on specified skilled workers.
- The two leaders also exchanged views on the regional situation. In this context, Prime Minister Suga expressed serious concerns regarding unilateral attempts to change the status quo in the East and South China Sea, China’s Coast Guard Law and the situation in Hong Kong and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR). Prime Minister Suga also asked for understanding and cooperation toward the early resolution of the abductions issue by North Korea. Furthermore, the two leaders confirmed that they have grave concerns over the situation in Myanmar and they would closely work together in this vein.