Abe visit, a tribute to mentor Manmohan

Knowing that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will soon be ending his political career, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe used the opportunity of his visit to India to pay tribute to Singh whom he has regarded as his mentor for many years.

“He wanted to pay a tribute to Manmohan Singh and indeed to me Abe seems to be a born again politician. When he was in India in 2007 as Prime Minister it was very much a bitter sweet experience for him.

“The speech that he delivered to the joint session of Parliament gathered applause which became one of the gratifying experiences for him but during the trip his illness got worse. As a result he had to step down as Prime Minister upon returning to Japan. This (the current visit) is in part to regain confidence to successfully conclude this bilateral visit,” said Taniguchi Tomohiko, Councillor Cabinet Secretariat of Japan.

Abe arrived on Saturday and was the first Japanese Prime Minister to be the chief guest at the Republic Day celebration held here on Sunday. Tomohiko said the joint statement issued after the bilateral talks ended late Saturday “is rich in context (and) big in numbers” and is supposed to withstand any change of Government in India.

“We want to show nations and peoples in Japan and India that this already good bilateral relationship has a broad bi-partisan support base. It is a hand shake of the largest democracy in the world and the most seasoned democracy in Asia, which is Japan, knowing that the neighbourhood that surrounds us has become even more unstable,” Tomohiko said.

Commenting on the talks between the two leaders, Kuni Sato, Spokesperson of the Japanese Foreign Office, said Abe raised the issue of improving the business environment here which will be the key to the further expansion of Japanese companies’ activities in India.

“In the economic field one of the focus areas of discussion was investment rather than trade. There are over 1,000 Japanese companies here which is a remarkable figure.

“This is a big leap that shows the business interest which is vindicated by the fact that the Prime Minister came with an economic mission. CEOs of big companies came along and they are very much interested in the potential of this country,” she said.

The spokesperson said that while trade is important the focus (now) is more on investment and India and Japan growing together economically.

“It’s Prime Minister Abe’s belief that Japan’s economy should grow as that will have a good effect on the region and globally.

He also mentioned that it is very good for the Indian economy to grow because that is also a source of not only prosperity but also stability,” she said.

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s Prime Ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi, seems to have caught the fancy of Japanese officials.

Describing Modi as “energetic, good at engaging people,” Tomohiko also called him “successful, sometimes controversial, in his economic policy in his own State. He is surrounded by able and experienced people”. He added he had not met or interacted with Modi.

Modi, who has been denied a visa by the US, had visited Japan in July 2012.