Tokyo [Japan], May 23 (ANI): India’s Ambassador to Japan, Sibi George, said that the members of parliament from different political parties affirmed their stance of “zero tolerance to terrorism” in one voice, and the message was conveyed loud and clear from the Indian side to the Japanese.
He said the all-party parliamentary delegation’s visit, led by JDU MP Sanjay Jha, helped India convey the message that its unity, strength, and determination will “go to any extent in destroying the infrastructure of terrorism.”
In an interview with ANI, George said that the visiting MPs met with Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya, former Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and members of Parliament and called it “amazing” that the whole nation has come together in its fight against terrorism. He also mentioned that Japan was one of the first nations to condemn the recent terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam and recalled the conversations between Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
On the importance of all-party delegation’s visit to India, George said, “India is the most peaceful country in the world, and India’s connected with Japan. If you travel, you will find that they look at India as the land of Buddha. Lord Buddha, Lord Buddha is nonviolence, and again, Mahatma Gandhi, we have last year during the visit of the honourable Prime Minister in the Hiroshima National Peace Park, we have installed the statue of Mahatma Gandhi. Why? Because he is the icon of peace. So, India is the land of peace and in Jammu and Kashmir, peace had returned, stability was there, democratic government was there, and life was normal. Schools were open, universities were open, tourism was flourishing. Business wise life was going very normal, that was the time the enemy hit.”
“Enemy hit and purpose was very clear, destroy the progress in Jammu and Kashmir, destroy the harmony, religious harmony, communal harmony in India, that was the purpose. There is no way we are going to let that happen. The whole country has to come together. Members of parliament from different political parties came together with one voice, zero tolerance to terrorism and the message was loud and clear from the Indian side to the our Japanese friends, to the diplomatic community, to the media. They went everywhere with one voice. This is a great achievement. I see it and you were seeing the interaction today and yesterday at every level. So, I think it was a good visit and it helped us convey our message loud and clear, our unity, our strength, and our determination to go to any extent in destroying the infrastructure of terrorism,” the Indian envoy said.
He also talked about MPs’ meetings with several Japanese officials and attending the Raisina Dialogue, where the lawmakers spoke on counter-terrorism and the fight against terrorism. He called it amazing that the whole nation has come together in its fight against terrorism.
Elaborating on MP’s meetings with Japanese officials, he said, “We had received our members of parliament yesterday early morning and since then, it has been continuous meetings and interactions with the Japanese side. They met the Foreign minister. They met the former Prime Minister Mr Suga, Foreign Minister Mr. Iwaya, and members of the parliament from the Japanese side, also attended the Raisina Dialogue where we spoke about counterterrorism and fight against terrorism.”
“So, it has been a great day yesterday for the members of parliament visiting the Foreign Office, the parliament, and today again we started the day with an interaction with the resident ambassadors and you have seen how proactive the engagement and interaction where there were questions and answers and was very happy to see the members of the parliament replying to their questions in one voice,” he said
“It’s an amazing India’s diversity, the whole nation has come together in its fight against terrorism, and let me tell you this, Japan was one of the first countries to condemn the attack immediately after the incident on April 22nd. On 23rd itself, the Prime Minister of Japan telephoned our honourable Prime Minister and condemned the terror attacks, extended full support in the fight against terrorism, condolences on sympathies on the victims. So, then the foreign ministers spoke, I have received so many condolences messages and support messages from the Japanese at every level, and so it has been a period where everyone stood together in their commitment in their determination in the fight against terrorism,” he added.
He stated, “We saw a number of meetings that took place yesterday with the Foreign Minister and the former prime ministers. So, as I said, they were the one of the first to come out in open in support for India, conveying their sympathies, and they reiterated that position yesterday. So, they stand with us in the fight against terrorism.”
An All-Party Parliamentary delegation from India, led by Sanjay Kumar Jha, is on a visit to Japan from May 22 to 24. The delegation aims to brief international partners on India’s response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack and its broader fight against cross-border terrorism while engaging with leaders in Japan.
The delegation, led by Jha, will also travel to Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea, and Singapore. India launched Operation Sindoor, targeting nine terror sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK), in response to the terrorist attack in Pahalgam on April 22, which claimed the lives of 26 people and injured several others.
Emphasising the ties between India and Japan, he said that the two nations have been “great friends” traditionally and have a civilisational and cultural connection. He noted that India and Japan have excellent political, business, defence and security relationships.
On India-Japan ties, he said, “India and Japan has traditionally been great friends. We have a civilisational connection, a cultural connect. You go any part of this country, you will see an India connect and in the last few decades, this relationship has really grown. In 2014, Prime Minister, honourable Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi and Prime Minister Abe, then Prime Minister established a special strategic and global partnership. Why is it special? It is special first and foremost because we have no history of conflict. We have only history of friendship, and that is the base, solid base on which we are building our relationship today, we have excellent political relationship, excellent business relationship, defence and security relationship, and they want the people to people connect and we continue to grow every day. We do events, we do interact with the people, we engage with the sole purpose of building this relationship brick by brick and you look at any part yesterday you saw the kind of engagement and the Raisina Dialogue, many people who have contributed immensely in building this relationship have assembled together with one determination, we will take it forward. It’s a special strategic and global partnership. Every day we work towards building that at every field. The number of Indians in Japan is growing now. I would like to have more. We want a quantum leap in our relationship in terms of numbers.”
“I would like to have more. Indian students to come and study here, more Japanese students to go and study in India. The youth exchanges, engagement, the professionals we need to increase. I would like to have 50,000 more Indian professionals to come to Japan in the next 5 years, we are working on that. So then one important thing we would like to cooperate more closely in defence equipment cooperation. That’s a very big area we want to engage in. The defence minister of Japan was in India two weeks back. The speaker of the National Assembly of Japan was in India last during the golden week. So, this is, this is how we build our relationship. Political establishment on both sides are working together. The business leadership is working together. We see that in all across Japan, Tokyo alone is not Japan. Japan is much bigger than Tokyo. So I went to all the prefectures, all 47 of them, engaged with them, and now they are engaging with us. So, it’s a beautiful relationship we are building,” he added.
He also spoke about India-Japan cooperation on the Indo-Pacific. He said that India, Japan, the US, and Australia are part of the Quad, and India brings credibility to the forum. He noted that India has 1/6th of the world’s total population but not 1/6 of the world’s problems. He also talked about his visits to semiconductor facilities in Japan, including Rapidus in Hokkaido or and the Tokyo Electron facilities in Yamanashi.
On India-Japan cooperation on Indo-Pacific, he said, “You know our message. The message of our Prime Minister on free and open Indo Pacific. We want every country small and big work together as sovereign countries freedom for everybody. That is what India believes in, and though India works with Japan and our like-minded friends to make sure that there is peace, stability, security, and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific and beyond. Quad, we are working together four like-minded countries India, US, Australia, and Japan coming together and what we bring to the Quad? What does India bring to a forum like a Quad or a forum like a G20 or a forum like any forum you take it? What does India bring? India first and foremost brings credibility. It brings credibility. We are 1/6th of the total population of the world, but not 1/6 of the problems of the world. It is somewhere else. We bring solutions to the table whether it is Quad whether it is G20, whether it is BRICS, we bring solutions to the table. That is India’s credibility. You go to any corner of the world, you see that this credibility, now our strategic autonomy that is appreciated and people are ready to work with us.”
He called Japan a “reliable partner” for India in growth and recalled how Suzuki came to India 40 years back. He also spoke about the growth of India’s economy, calling it the “fastest growing economy in the world.” He mentioned how both nations are investing in semiconductors.
When asked how Japan and India are working together in technology sector, he responded, “Japan has always been a reliable partner in our growth. You have seen it. Suzuki came to India 40 years ago, and Suzuki in India become bigger than Suzuki in Japan. Now there are more Suzukis in India than in Japan, but that is just one example. There are 1500 Japanese companies in India. These are 1500 success stories, but my target is to quantum leap there too. I want to make this 1500 into 15,000 small and medium-scale companies. With the technology, today, India is growing 6 per cent, 7 per cent, India is the fastest-growing large economy in the world, and we are growing more than any other country, faster than any other country in the world, which is appreciated, acknowledged, recognised, and people are working towards engaging with India. See it in Japan, any corner companies want to work with India.”
“The number of business delegations visiting India is too many of them going there now same is the case from India. So there is this quantum leap in our relationship, and you mentioned about the technology that is the most important thing, our government has this three T’s programme, one important element is technology. We are working with the Japanese at every level, the small and medium scale companies also semiconductors is one area. India is investing heavily on semiconductors. Japan is also investing heavily on semiconductors. I visited most of their semiconductors…in Japan, whether it is Rapidus in Hokkaido or there are other one, the Tokyo Electron facilities in Yamanashi or Sinai City. We have gone there and we have seen how Japan is investing in the semiconductors, we are also investing. So, there is complementarity in our engagement. No day in my life in Tokyo goes without doing something about semiconductors every day, this is the kind of engagement we have with Japan,” he added.
He also talked about the collaboration between the universities of India and Japan. Highlighting the India-Japan ties in education sector, he said, “In the last two months, we have two major progress. One, we have set up a joint school first with the Tohoku University and Mumbai IIT. I was there present in that meeting. This is the first time, that means a joint acceptance of the degrees. Second, recently we have signed signed MOU with one of the Japanese universities very recently at the university which focuses on Raman effect. I, in fact unveiled the statue of Dr CV Raman there in that university. So that is with the IIT Hyderabad. So we work very closely with the Japanese, and, this is the process, so work progress. We are improving this connectivity between the universities of India and Japan. You would be interested to know that last year we celebrated Diwali in 140 Japanese universities. This is something unique because India is making good progress in its engagement with Japan at every level.” (ANI)
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