(FE)
Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj begins her three-day visit to Japan today. Swaraj will meet her counterpart Taro Kono and will co-chair a strategic dialogue on 29th March. It was reported that the two sides will be reviewing all bi-lateral aspects and will also give importance to the new areas of convergence of both the countries. Swaraj will be attending and be co-chairing the 9th India-Japan Strategic Dialogue. The India-Japan Strategic Dialogue is a bi-lateral summit that being in Japan and India alternatively since 2007.
India and Japan’s relationship has gathered momentum over a period of time. Never was the relationship between India and Japan was that of conflict. Japnese President Shinzo Abe addressing the Indian Parliament for the first time in 2007 had famously said, “a strong India is in the best interest of Japan, and a strong Japan is in the best interest of India”. Since then, the path was clear for India to root out its dilemma surrounding “Act East” policy. The speech had made it pretty clear India was not alone in its competition against China.
