Delhi/Tokyo,30 August (H.S.): On a landmark morning in Tokyo, Prime Minister Narendra Modi engaged in a high-profile interaction with the Governors of 16 Japanese prefectures, marking a strategic milestone in India-Japan bilateral relations.This high-caliber dialogue marked the launch of a pioneering State-Prefecture Partnership Initiative, unveiled at the 15th Annual India-Japan Summit just a day prior, set to redefine sub-national collaboration beyond the traditional Tokyo-India axis.
PM Modi eloquently highlighted how the deep-rooted civilizational connections have blossomed into a vibrant Special Strategic and Global Partnership, now ripe to harness the diverse economic and technological strengths of Japan’s prefectures alongside India’s dynamic states. He passionately called on the Governors to engage proactively in India’s burgeoning growth journey by fostering partnerships in innovation, manufacturing, next-generation infrastructure, mobility, startups, and SMEs.
In a Post on X,PM Modi wrote, This morning in Tokyo, interacted with the Governors of 16 prefectures of Japan. State-prefecture cooperation is a vital pillar of India-Japan friendship. This is also why a separate initiative on it was launched during the 15th Annual India-Japan Summit yesterday. There is immense scope to cooperate in areas like trade, innovation, entrepreneurship and more. Futuristic sectors like Startups, tech and AI too can be beneficial.
Central to Modi’s vision is a robust fusion of Japanese technological prowess with Indian talent through intensified youth and skills exchange programs, aimed at accelerating shared prosperity in cutting-edge sectors like artificial intelligence and technology entrepreneurship. The Governors resonated with the Prime Minister’s call, recognizing that grassroots-level state-prefecture collaboration is vital to elevating business, educational, cultural, and people-to-people ties between the two nations.
This initiative complements broader bilateral commitments encompassing economic security, clean energy, semiconductor development, and digital infrastructure, signaling a strategic intensification of India-Japan ties. By embedding cooperation at the sub-national level, India and Japan are poised to drive innovation-led growth and deepen strategic partnership, heralding a new dawn in Asia’s geopolitical and economic landscape.
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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar
