Joint plan to boost trade, security ties

India and Japan on Tuesday unveiled a joint action plan on advanced security cooperation besides giving a higher dimension to economic relations.

India and Japan on Tuesday unveiled a joint action plan on advanced security cooperation besides giving a higher dimension to economic relations.

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A proposal to ease visa rules to foster trade was also put at the annual summit meeting the Prime Minister Mamohan Singh and his Japanese counterpart Yukio Hatoyama.

Glitches, however, remain on the showpiece Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement (CEPA) for which negotiations started in 2007. It would be ready only by the summit meeting next year.

The action plan to advance security cooperation, based on a declaration signed in October last year, included a newly-established "2-plus-2" dialogue framework at the senior official level of the external affairs and defence ministries.

The plan has various strategic and defence mechanisms, including an annual strategic dialogue at the foreign-minister level, regular consultations between security advisers, among others.

Talking about economic stance, Singh said the burgeoning economic ties was the "bedrock'" of bilateral relations.

The intensification of trade and investment will be good not only for India and Japan but for the entire world, Hatoyama said. “I requested Prime Minister Hatoyama to ensure that Japanese visa system becomes more liberal to enable faster growth of trade... and people-to-people contact,” Singh said.

India and Japan have a $20 billion target in trade next year from $12 billion in 2008-09.