Sanae Takaichi was accorded a ceremonial Guard of Honour at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Thursday as she began her first official state visit to India. Narendra Modi joined the Japanese leader during the ceremonial reception before the two prime ministers prepared to hold high-level bilateral talks to build upon the India-Japan Special Strategic and Global Partnership.
The three-day trip will mark Takaichi’s first official visit to India since taking office and comes at a time when New Delhi and Tokyo are trying to strengthen cooperation in trade, investment, defence, technology and regional security.
Soon after arriving in the national capital on Wednesday evening, Takaichi was welcomed by Jitendra Singh on behalf of the Government of India at Palam Technical Airport.
With the arrival, Singh wrote in his social media that he was “privileged to receive and welcome Her Excellency Sanae Takaichi, Prime Minister of Japan.” The visit will be accompanied by the 16th Japan-India Annual Summit, one of the most important mechanisms for bilateral cooperation between the two countries.
Japan also seemed enthusiastic about the visit. In a post on X, the Japanese Cabinet's Public Relations Office thanked India for the warm welcome, saying, "Our heartfelt thanks for your warm welcome. We are very much excited to be visiting India!"
Narendra Modi welcomed the Japanese leader’s visit, saying he looked forward to discussions that would help cement a long-standing relationship between the two countries.
The two leaders will be expected to engage in a wide range of discussions on bilateral cooperation as well as global and regional issues of mutual interest in the Prime Minister's Office. The talks are likely to focus on economic cooperation, defence cooperation, resilient supply chains, semiconductor partnerships, clean energy, digital technologies and Indo-Pacific security.
One of the major highlights of the visit is expected to be Japanese investment into India. Japanese media reports say companies from Japan will announce investments in the region of approximately $12.5 billion through 120 cooperation agreements during the summit. The investment will be into manufacturing, infrastructure, clean energy, mobility, electronics and advanced technologies.
The visit will coincide with the Japan-India Economic Forum in which more than 150 Japanese companies are expected to attend. The forum will help to foster new business relations and increase the economic cooperation between the two countries to strengthen the partnership and develop the relationship, the World Trade Organization (WTO) said.
Japan's Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Masanao Ozaki, who was accompanying Takaichi on the trip, said the forum would help reinforce government-to-government cooperation while expanding collaboration in national security and economic security.
India and Japan have expanded their strategic partnership significantly in the last two decades and it goes well beyond trade to infrastructure development, defence exercises, high-speed rail projects, key technologies and regional security frameworks in the Indo-Pacific.
The summit will see both countries reaffirm their focus on economic cooperation and cooperation in emerging sectors. Takaichi's first visit to India is also considered a major step in deepening one of Asia's great bilateral partnerships - billions of dollars of potential investment and a strong emphasis on strategic collaboration.
