Japan And India Partners In Quest For Peace: PM

Tokyo: Stressing the need for defense and strategic cooperation between Japan and India, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Tuesday that both countries had a major role to play in regional stability.

"We see Japan as a natural and indispensable partner in our quest for stability and peace in the vast region in Asia that is washed by the Pacific and Indian Oceans," the prime minister said a day before his bilateral summit meeting with his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe.

He was addressing an event organised by the Japan-India Association, Japan-India Parliamentary Friendship League and International Friendship Exchange Council here.

The focus was on strategic partnership with Japan, which also has territorial disputes with China.

"This region faces multiple challenges, unresolved issues and unsettled questions. Historical differences persist despite our growing inter-dependence; prosperity has not fully eliminated disparities within and between states; and there are continuing threats to stability and security," Manmohan Singh said, without naming any country.

Calling for strengthening of regional mechanisms between New Delhi and Tokyo, Manmohan Singh said: "India and Japan are among the major actors in this region. It is our responsibility to foster a climate of peace, stability and cooperation and to lay an enduring foundation for security and prosperity.

"On this occasion, I am reminded of Prime Minister (Shinzo) Abe's inspiring and visionary address to the Indian parliament in August 2007, when he spoke of the confluence of the two seas - the Pacific and the Indian Oceans - which has defined the new framework for our bilateral relationship.

"Prime Minister Abe and I will work together to strengthen our strategic partnership, impart new momentum to our economic cooperation and deepen our dialogue on shared regional and global interests," he said.

In recent years, the prime minister added, political and security cooperation between the two countries has gained in salience.

"Japan is the only partner with whom we have a 2-plus-2 Dialogue between the foreign and defence ministries. We have also begun bilateral exercises with the Japanese Maritime Self Defence Force. We have shared interests in maritime security," he said.

The Indo-Pacific region had witnessed profound social and economic changes on "a scale and at a speed rarely seen in human history", he said.