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On February 8, former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama received a courtesy call from a cross-party delegation of young Indian politicians at DPJ party headquarters. The meeting was also attended by International Department Director-General Chinami Nishimura, member of the House of Councillors Yukihisa Fujita, Deputy Chair of the National Rallying and Canvassing Committee Kazumi Ota, Vice Director-General of the International Department Naoto Sakaguchi and member of the House of Representatives Tomoyuki Taira for the DPJ.
At the start of the meeting, Hatoyama referred to a visit he had made to India the previous month. He said that the assembled DPJ Diet members were all “very fond of India”, and warmly welcomed the visiting delegation. Hatoyama went on to say that “Japan-India Global Partnership Summit 2011”, which is scheduled to be held in Tokyo this coming September, will provide an opportunity for engaging in bilateral exchanges on a whole variety of levels, including inter-government and private exchanges, and expressed the wish that the relationship between Japan and India could become even closer in the future.
In response, the leader of the Indian delegation, member of the upper house for the Bharatiya Janata Party Tarun Vijay, stressed the importance of cooperative relations between Japan and India, commenting that Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is “very focused on improving the political, economic and cultural relations between our two great nations”, and expressing the opinion that “the strategic partnership between Japan and India is necessary in order to strengthen peace and stability, particularly in our region.” The two sides confirmed their intention of deepening bilateral dialogue and exchanges between parliamentarians of all parties, and the meeting ended on a convivial note.
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