India, Japan holds maiden Act East Forum meet, eyes to stabilise Indo-Pacific region

NEW DELHI: India and Japan on Wednesday held their maiden Act East Forum meeting in Delhi in pursuance of the Memorandum of Cooperation to establish this Forum signed on September 14 during the visit of Prime Minister Abe to the country eyeing to stabilise Indo-Pacific region

The meeting was co-chaired by Foreign Secretary Dr. S. Jaishankar and the Japanese Ambassador to India Mr. Kenji Hiramatsu.

The Act East Forum aims to provide a platform for India-Japan collaboration under the rubric of India’s “Act East Policy” and Japan’s “Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy”.

The Forum will identify specific projects for economic modernization of India’s North-East region including those pertaining to connectivity, developmental infrastructure, industrial linkages as well as people-to-people contacts through tourism, culture and sports-related activities. Thereafter the Forum will discuss joint projects for ASEAN region. Japan is already undertaking infrastructure projects in Northeastern states.

Besides the Ministry of External Affairs and the Embassy of Japan, participants included representatives from Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DONER), Department of Economic Affairs in the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Ministry of Home Affairs and the States of North-East region from the Indian side, and Japan International Cooperation Agency, Japan External Trade Organization, Japan Foundation and Japan National Tourism Organization from the Japanese side.