Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is the chief guest at India’s 65th Republic Day celebrations this year. He is the first Japanese dignitary to grace the occasion. Mr. Abe’s visit comes a little over a month after Japanese Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko’s visit to India, also a historic first.
Prime Minister Abe’s visit is being seen as a sign of strengthening India-Japan bilateral ties in the field of defence, trade and economic spheres. Japanese defence minister Itsunori Onodera visited New Delhi in early January to discuss deepening of defence cooperation between India and Japan.
Japan is the largest bilateral donor to India. It has contributed to various infrastructure projects like the Delhi Metro and is assisting in the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor Project and Dedicated Freight Corridor Projects on the Mumbai-Delhi and Delhi-Howrah routes. In 2010, the two countries signed a joint declaration on the India-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA).