Japanese Consul General visits Centre for Policy Research in Kochi

Kochi [Kerala], May 27 (ANI): Japanese Consul General Taga Masayuki San visited the Centre for Policy Research, Kochi on Thursday amid flourishing cooperation between India and Japan in various spheres.

The Hon. CG delivered a lecture on the topic “Evolving Japan-India Relations in the 21st Century”, touching upon the 70 years of diplomatic relations between India and Japan, and their ‘special strategic and global partnership’ in the 21st century, followed by a question and answer session with the audience.

The Q and A session touched upon different aspects of the bilateral relations as well as the overarching threat of China in the Indo Pacific and the Japanese take on it. A recurrent idea was that cherishing and deepening engagement between the two countries is pivotal to tackling a maritime and territorial threat like China, stated the Press Release.

Honourable CG traced the trajectory of relations between India and Japan from a historical perspective. He emphasised the importance of Buddhist linkages and Indian religions in Japanese culture and also spoke about how the two PMs acknowledged the growing space for cooperation between Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative (IPOI) and (Free and Open Indo-Pacific) FOIP.

He also spoke at length about the history of diplomatic relations that the two countries have had for 70 years. Although having gone through ups and downs, the relations are looking more robust and dynamic in the 21st century. He was also confident that the relations are on an upward trajectory through our multi-sectoral cooperation in “trade, science and technology cooperation, space dialogues, maritime affairs dialogue, at the multilateral front as well as bilaterally.”In a further statement, the Japanese consul, CG Masayuki stated that the lack of research about India in Japan and about Japan in India needs to be addressed, though both nations undertake plenty of research on USA, UK, Russia, China etc.

PM Narendra Modi’s visit to Tokyo to attend the QUAD and the bilateral talks happening on its sidelines sheds light on India’s significance to the security interests in the Indo Pacific. Seven decades of diplomatic relations with Japan have been monumental in partnering in a range of areas like infrastructure, trade, traditional and non-traditional security, vaccine delivery and so on.

The Honourable CG’s talk was attended by Senior Fellows, Advisers, and Research Fellows at CPPR, along with the team members. The CG was very candid in his interactions with the team and highlighted that the people-to-people contact was required to build and maintain friendly relations among the countries. (ANI)