Japan India talk economy, security

INDIA: Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama arrived in India Sunday on a three-day visit aimed at strengthening economic and security cooperation with the emerging giant.

Hatoyama and a high-level delegation arrived in the financial capital Mumbai, where he was due to pay tribute to the victims of last year’s Islamist militant attacks, which left 166 people dead.

He will head for the capital New Delhi on Monday for a private dinner with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and will also meet with Sonia Gandhi, chief of the ruling Congress Party.

Singh and Hatoyama, who have already met twice in the last three months, will hold a joint press conference Tuesday.

External affairs spokesman Vishnu Prakash said earlier the visit “obviously reflects the continuing commitment of the two sides to strengthening and broadening our bilateral relations.”

Hatoyama is also scheduled to meet top Indian business leaders, including chairman of the Tata Group conglomerate Ratan Tata and Mukesh Ambani, head of India’s biggest private sector company Reliance Industries Ltd.

Japan is currently the sixth largest investor in India in terms of actual investments, worth more than three billion dollars.

Trade between the two nations touched 12 billion dollars during 2008-2009, and India has set a trade target of 20 billion dollars by 2010.

But trade talks are at an impasse over how much to reduce tariffs and whether Japan will ease its tight regulations to allow Indian generic drugs.

Civil nuclear cooperation and defence are among the items on the agenda, with India keen to access Japanese nuclear power technology and both nations having signed a joint declaration on security cooperation last year.

The centre-left Hatoyama, who ousted a conservative government in August, will also meet the UN’s top climate scientist Rajendra Pachauri, to discuss how to generate momentum on tackling global warming after the Copenhagen climate accord failed to reach binding targets.

Mumbai, Monday, AFP