Tag: India Japan Ties

  • Army will not let China change status quo along LAC ‘unilaterally’: Jaishankar

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI:  Indian Army will not let China change the status quo along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) “unilaterally” and its current deployment along the frontier was not seen before, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Monday, rejecting Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s criticism of the government’s handling of the border row.

    Jaishankar said the deployment of the Army was made on the orders of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Army did not go to the frontier region because Gandhi asked them for it.

    “Today we have a deployment of the Indian Army on the China border that we have never had. It is done in order to counter Chinese deployment which was scaled up massively since 2020,” Jaishankar said.

    He was replying to a question during India Today’s India-Japan conclave.

    “If we were in denial then how is the Army out there? The Army did not go there because Rahul Gandhi asked them to go. Army went there because the prime minister of India ordered them to go,” Jaishankar said, replying to Gandhi’s allegations that the government was hiding the fact that China took Indian territory along the LAC.

    The Indian and Chinese troops were engaged in a fresh clash in the Yangtse area of Arunachal Pradesh’s Tawang sector on December 9. The incident came amid the over 30-month border standoff in eastern Ladakh.

    ALSO READ | Accused of altering status quo, Beijing downplays Arunachal border clash 

    “People will say things; they may not be credible, they may sometimes contradict their own positions, their own behaviour. All that could happen. But the fact is what is finally the proof of the pudding? The proof of the pudding is that the Indian Army is deployed today to counter any attempt to unilaterally change the LAC,” Jaishankar said.

    The external affairs minister said it is the commitment of the Indian Army to not let China change the LAC unilaterally.

    “I am saying that it is the obligation of the Indian state and that is the duty and commitment of the Indian military that we will not let any country, and in this case, China, change the LAC unilaterally,” Jaishankar said.

    “I think it is fairly obvious and most people in the country see that. You can make your polemical points. I think people will treat it as politics,” he added.

    Asked about Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s criticism of the government for increasing trade volume with China notwithstanding the border row, he said that India continues to import from that country because there was no adequate focus on the manufacturing sector.

    Jaishankar said not much attention was given to the MSME sector and building supply chains as well after India opened up its economy in 1991.

    “When somebody says why imports are coming out of China, there are imports coming out of China because, for 30 years, you did not give your industry the kind of support and protection you should have,” Jaishankar said.

    “It is only now in recent years that you have started to do it. Now you cannot reverse in five or 10 years what you have done in 30 years,” he said.

    Speaking at the conclave, Jaishankar made 12 points about India-Japan ties and said the two countries have a “positive history” that will be an asset in the coming times.

    He said Japan is perceived in India as a model of harmonising modernity and tradition, adding there is a strong national consensus in India on developing ties with that country.

    “Traditionally, this was an economic relationship. In the past, global strategy had little impact on India-Japan ties,” he said.

    “Businesses have long had a footprint in each other’s economy. But, this did not become a deep one. Japan started approaching India with a strategic outlook under former PM Shinzo Abe,” he said.

    Jaishankar said Japan has been a catalyst of “change” and referred to Maruti bringing a lifestyle shift and Metro networks, an urbanization experience. “Bullet Train will have major consequences,” he said.

    Japan has been significantly supporting the Delhi Metro network. “Our strategic compulsions are much stronger today as we are united to secure a multipolar Asia. And to ensure that Asian diversity is reflected in its power structure,” the minister said.

    He noted that the maritime convergence between India and Japan is particularly strong and will grow in the years ahead. “The energy of the Quad will charge up our bilateral ties and reinforce them for mutual benefit,” he said, adding the big question is whether Japan will see India’s growth as a strategic goal.

    NEW DELHI:  Indian Army will not let China change the status quo along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) “unilaterally” and its current deployment along the frontier was not seen before, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Monday, rejecting Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s criticism of the government’s handling of the border row.

    Jaishankar said the deployment of the Army was made on the orders of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Army did not go to the frontier region because Gandhi asked them for it.

    “Today we have a deployment of the Indian Army on the China border that we have never had. It is done in order to counter Chinese deployment which was scaled up massively since 2020,” Jaishankar said.

    He was replying to a question during India Today’s India-Japan conclave.

    “If we were in denial then how is the Army out there? The Army did not go there because Rahul Gandhi asked them to go. Army went there because the prime minister of India ordered them to go,” Jaishankar said, replying to Gandhi’s allegations that the government was hiding the fact that China took Indian territory along the LAC.

    The Indian and Chinese troops were engaged in a fresh clash in the Yangtse area of Arunachal Pradesh’s Tawang sector on December 9. The incident came amid the over 30-month border standoff in eastern Ladakh.

    ALSO READ | Accused of altering status quo, Beijing downplays Arunachal border clash 

    “People will say things; they may not be credible, they may sometimes contradict their own positions, their own behaviour. All that could happen. But the fact is what is finally the proof of the pudding? The proof of the pudding is that the Indian Army is deployed today to counter any attempt to unilaterally change the LAC,” Jaishankar said.

    The external affairs minister said it is the commitment of the Indian Army to not let China change the LAC unilaterally.

    “I am saying that it is the obligation of the Indian state and that is the duty and commitment of the Indian military that we will not let any country, and in this case, China, change the LAC unilaterally,” Jaishankar said.

    “I think it is fairly obvious and most people in the country see that. You can make your polemical points. I think people will treat it as politics,” he added.

    Asked about Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s criticism of the government for increasing trade volume with China notwithstanding the border row, he said that India continues to import from that country because there was no adequate focus on the manufacturing sector.

    Jaishankar said not much attention was given to the MSME sector and building supply chains as well after India opened up its economy in 1991.

    “When somebody says why imports are coming out of China, there are imports coming out of China because, for 30 years, you did not give your industry the kind of support and protection you should have,” Jaishankar said.

    “It is only now in recent years that you have started to do it. Now you cannot reverse in five or 10 years what you have done in 30 years,” he said.

    Speaking at the conclave, Jaishankar made 12 points about India-Japan ties and said the two countries have a “positive history” that will be an asset in the coming times.

    He said Japan is perceived in India as a model of harmonising modernity and tradition, adding there is a strong national consensus in India on developing ties with that country.

    “Traditionally, this was an economic relationship. In the past, global strategy had little impact on India-Japan ties,” he said.

    “Businesses have long had a footprint in each other’s economy. But, this did not become a deep one. Japan started approaching India with a strategic outlook under former PM Shinzo Abe,” he said.

    Jaishankar said Japan has been a catalyst of “change” and referred to Maruti bringing a lifestyle shift and Metro networks, an urbanization experience. “Bullet Train will have major consequences,” he said.

    Japan has been significantly supporting the Delhi Metro network. “Our strategic compulsions are much stronger today as we are united to secure a multipolar Asia. And to ensure that Asian diversity is reflected in its power structure,” the minister said.

    He noted that the maritime convergence between India and Japan is particularly strong and will grow in the years ahead. “The energy of the Quad will charge up our bilateral ties and reinforce them for mutual benefit,” he said, adding the big question is whether Japan will see India’s growth as a strategic goal.

  • Indo-Japanese partnership during COVID-19 more relevant for global stability: PM Narendra Modi

    By PTI
    AHMEDABAD: The Indo-Japanese friendship and partnership during the COVID-19 crisis is more relevant for global stability and prosperity, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday and called for further strengthening of the ties between the two countries.

    The PM was speaking after virtually inaugurating a Japanese Zen garden and Kaizen Academy set up at the premises of the Ahmedabad Management Association (AMA) here.

    In his address via video conference, Modi said the opening of the Zen garden and the Kaizen Academy here “is a symbol of the spontaneity and modernity of relations between India and Japan”.

    “The current Prime Minister of Japan, Yoshihide Suga, is a very straight-forward person. PM Suga and I believe that during the time of this COVID-19 pandemic crisis, the Indo-Japanese friendship and our partnership has become even more relevant for global stability and prosperity. Today, when we are facing several global challenges, it is the need of the hour that our friendship and relationship get stronger day by day,” Modi said.

    He said efforts like setting up of the Kaizen Academy are a beautiful reflection of this relationship.

    “We also have a strong belief in centuries-old cultural ties, and a common vision for future. Based on this, we have been continuously strengthening our special strategic and global partnership over the years. For this, we have also made a special arrangement of ‘Japan Plus’ (team of officials to promote greater Japanese investments in India) in the PMO (Prime Minister’s Office),” he said.

    ‘Zen-Kaizen’ at the AMA seeks to showcase several elements of Japanese art, culture, landscape and architecture.

    It is a joint endeavour of the Japan Information and Study Centre at AMA and the Indo-Japan Friendship Association (IJFA), Gujarat, supported by the Hyogo International Association (HIA), Japan, a release earlier said.

    Modi said this occasion of the launch of the Zen garden and Kaizen Academy is a “symbol of the spontaneity and modernity of India-Japan relations”.

    The PM said he is confident that this will further strengthen the relationship between India and Japan, bringing citizens of the two countries closer.

    “I would like the Kaizen Academy to spread the work culture of Japan in India, and increase business interaction between the two countries. We also have to give new energy to the efforts already going on in this direction. I am sure our efforts will continue like this, and India and Japan will together reach new heights of development,” he said.

    Talking about former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, Modi said relations between the two countries gained a new impetus when Abe had visited Gujarat.

    He was very excited when the work of the (Mumbai-Ahmedabad) bullet train project started, the PM said.

    “Even today, when I talk to him, he remembers his Gujarat tour,” he said.

    Modi also said India and Japan have been devoted to external progress and prosperity, as much as the importance given to internal peace and progress by the two countries.

    He said the Japanese Zen garden is “a beautiful expression of this quest for peace, this simplicity.”

    Modi said the peace, ease and simplicity that the people of India have learnt through yoga and spirituality for centuries, they will see a glimpse of the same here.

    “What is ‘Zen’ in Japan is ‘dhyan’ (meditation) in India,” he said.

    “This is the meditation that Buddha gave to the world. And as far as the concept of ‘Kaizen’ is concerned, it is a living proof of the strength of our intentions in the present, of our will to move forward continuously,” he said.

    Modi said he would like the Kaizen Academy to promote the work-culture of Japan in India, and increase business interactions between the two countries.

    “We have to give new energy to the efforts that are already going in this direction, like the Indo-Japan student exchange programme between the Gujarat University and the Otemon Gakuin University of Osaka. This programme has been strengthening our relationship for over five decades. This can be further expanded. Such partnerships can be done between the two countries and also between institutions,” he said.

    Modi also talked about the relationship between Japan and Gujarat, and recalled that as the then chief minister of Gujarat, he had given special emphasis on Kaizen in the state, which was then used in administrative training, the state education education system as well as reforms in the health department.

    He said after becoming the prime minister, he took the experience from Kaizen to Delhi and started it in the PMO and other departments of the central government.

    “The affection of the people of Japan, their working style, their skills, their discipline, have always been influencing. And that’s why whenever I said I wanted to create a mini-Japan in Gujarat, the main sentiment behind it was that whenever the people of Japan come to Gujarat, they should see the same warmth, the same belongingness,” he said.

    He said Japan joined as the partner country of the Vibrant Gujarat Summit since the very beginning, and even today, the largest delegation is from Japan.

    “We are all satisfied to see the confidence that Japan has reposed in Gujarat, in the power of its people,” Modi said.

    He said more than 135 Japanese companies are working in Gujarat, in sectors including automobile, banking, construction, and pharma.

    These companies are also helping in imparting skill-development to the youth of Gujarat, he added.