India To Engage In Bilateral Talks With Japan And Belarus This Week
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s birthday week is full of international visits. Ahead of the Modi's 67th birthday, Shinzo Abe, Prime Minister, Japan, will be visiting and President of Belarus H.E A.G Lukashenko is in India on Monday (11 September) for bilateral visits.
Abe will undertake an official visit to at the invitation to the Indian PM from September 13-14 during which the leaders will hold the 12th India-Japan Annual Summit in Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar, Gujrat.
This will be the fourth Annual Summit between PM Modi and his Japnese counterpart PM Abe. The two leaders will review the recent progress in multi faceted cooperation between India and Japan under the framework of their Special Strategic and global Partnership and will set its future direction.
Both the leaders will take part in the groundbreaking ceremony for the ambitious Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail Project, commonly referred to as the bullet train project, on September 14.
The groundbreaking ceremony (Bhoomi-pujan) for the project, coming up at an estimated cost of Rs 98,000 crore, will be held at a site near the Sabarmati railway station in the city. It will officially mark the flag off of the PM’s dream project.
Speaking at the 'India-Japan Colloquium', Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar also noted that the growing convergence of views between Japan and India has the capacity to drive Asia's economy and development and stimulate the global growth
"In this regard, the two countries have agreed to cooperate closely to promote connectivity, infrastructure and capacity-building in the regions that occupy the inter-linked waters of the Indo-Pacific," the foreign secretary said.
Incidentally, both the leaders’ birthdays fall within four days of each other.
As of 2013, bilateral trade between India and Japan stood at US$16.31 billion and is expected to reach US$50 billion by 2019-20.
Meanwhile, at the invitation of the President of India, the President of the Republic of Belarus, H.E. A.G. Lukashenko, is paying a State visit to the Republic of India from 11-12 September 2017.
The visit is taking place in a year when Belarus and India are celebrating the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations. During the visit, President Lukashenko will have meetings with President Shri Ram Nath Kovind, Vice President Shri Venkaiah Naidu, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi and the External Affairs Minister Smt. Sushma Swaraj.
During the visit, the two sides are expected to discuss bilateral cooperation in defence & security, trade & investment, science & technology and people to people exchanges. They are also likely to exchange views and assessments on regional and multilateral issues of mutual interest. A business forum and parallel meetings organized for the members of the large delegation accompanying President Lukashenko would explore business opportunities and cooperation avenues.
According to Belarus' media, the business forum is held in partnership with three India's biggest business associations. More than 20 documents worth millions of US dollars (memorandums, agreements and contracts) are expected to be signed at the forum.
In January-July 2017 the mutual trade totalled $228.5 million. Belarus' main exports to India include potash fertilizers. About two years ago a task was set forth to reach $1 billion in bilateral trade.
