Opening remarks by EAM, Dr. S. Jaishankar at the Japan National Press Club

Let me say what a great pleasure it is to be back in Japan and to address the Japan National Press Club. I obviously do this as the Foreign Minister of India, but I think, as my friend told you, I'm also in a way a veteran of three decades of India-Japan ties, and in a kind of way also a pioneer of the Quad, one of the pioneers of the Quad. I've been associated with it since it restarted in 2017, but also the first time we attempted it in 2007. I mention these two facts because a lot of what I'm going to say is related to India-Japan relations, also to the Quad, and this, in fact, these two meetings are the main reason why I'm here in Tokyo today.

Let me first start with India-Japan relations. I think they have come a very long way in the last 25 years, especially in the last decade, since 2014-15, and there are many reasons for this. For us, history has never been a burden, politics has actually been very helpful, economics has become a larger factor, technology has made its contribution, and culture and tourism a larger connect, and our people-to-people ties have steadily expanded. Each of these actually has room for further growth, which is exactly the focus of my discussions which I just finished with Minister KAMIKAWA Yoko. And clearly, neither of our countries live in isolation. Our ties are shaped by the regional and global environment. And in an era of new capabilities and new technologies, indeed of new challenges and new stresses, we do need a contemporary partnership. That is what we believe, is today, in the making between India and Japan.

Where India is concerned, do recognize that we are today, we are currently the fifth largest economy in the world. Which is substantially higher and larger than what it was when I was first associated with this relationship. The growth rate in India, even after COVID is in excess of 7%, and is likely to remain so for many decades to come. The changes of the last decade, we expect that to unfold further, have made India a globally relevant player, globally relevant economic player. Our commitment to ease of doing business, to promoting ease of living, to ensuring make in India, to building rapid infrastructure, for digital delivery and inclusive growth, all these combined are today transforming the landscape in India. Poverty levels in India have also dropped dramatically and the middle class is growing rapidly. Industrial growth has been robust and in some sectors they have been facilitated by a scheme called production linked incentives.

Now, why am I saying this to you? I am saying this to you because it is important for our partners in Japan to appreciate the scale and intensity of the changes which are underway in India. To give you a sense, a feel really for the change, if you look at the last 10 years, we have on average built eight new airports every year, about one and a half to two new metros in new cities every year. We build today 28 kilometers of highway every day. We lay railway tracks of eight kilometers also every day. If you look at our education and skills, the institutions, educational institutions have doubled in the last 10 years. And it is no accident that there are now 1,600 global capability centers across India that generate exports of more than $100 billion every year. So we are not just a more attractive economic partner, but we are also a more capable one. And in a range of domains , in areas like semiconductors, electric vehicles, space, drones, green energy. India is actually today seeking to leapfrog, it has the ambitions and increasingly the ability to become a global partner for many advanced economies.

Our goal, where Japan is concerned, is to increase investments rapidly. There are 1,400 Japanese businesses operating in India. We would like to see that number grow. And we have an investment target of 5 trillion yen, that is $42 billion by 2027. In India, I must tell you that Japan has long been associated with economic and technology advancement. It is not just the example of Japanese progress itself, but it is also reflected in the history of our collaboration. Japanese companies, Japanese industry, in many ways, triggered the automobile revolution in India. The partnership was responsible as well for the proliferation of metros that I spoke about. We are right now engaged in an important high-speed railway project. And certainly global priorities like semiconductors, AI, or EVs, and green energy, they offer great potential for our cooperation. It is also very much in Japan's own interest to accelerate the emergence of resilient and reliable supply chains, as well as transparent and trusted digital collaboration. These are today the focus of our conversations, both bilaterally and in the Quad, because they do have a larger implication. Our efforts would be strengthened by deeper networking of our business communities, which we would like to promote.

Now, while I have spoken about growth and progress, they clearly require security and stability. In a volatile and unpredictable era in which we live, these are best ensured through stronger international cooperation. In recent years, between India and Japan, we have undertaken regular exercises involving air, naval and ground forces. Our ships visit each other's ports more frequently. Our defense leadership holds exchanges more often. We are right now beginning to explore projects under the Defense Equipment and Technology Cooperation, DETC Cooperation Initiative, and this is important because in India our own domestic defense industry and our exports are growing very rapidly.

Every relationship is ultimately anchored on a societal connect. There is still a gap, I would say, between our goodwill and our exchanges. My talks also focused on increasing exchanges in education, tourism, culture and civil society. We believe that both Japan and our relationship will be well served through greater utilization of skilled Indian professionals in the Japanese economy.

Our Special Strategic and Global Partnership has been led by tradition of annual summits and high-level exchanges. I see that the speaker of Japan, Nukaga Fukushiro, is actually visiting India at this very time. Let me conclude this segment on Japan by underlining that India-Japan relations, we are striving to realize the full potential of our contemporary capabilities, especially in the light of the changing global scenario. Our objective is to highlight that new opportunities are there and that their harnessing is essential to that purpose.

So let me now say a few words. On the Quad, there are a few points I would like to stress. One, that the Quad is in the field of critical and emerging technologies. We are strengthening supply chain resilience, we are advancing telecom technology, including 5G and O-RAN, and we are promoting digital connectivity. When it comes to infrastructure and physical connectivity, Quad partners coordinate in order to promote transparency and viability and local ownership. Our export credit agencies agreed this year to collectively work together to enhance supply chains and investments. We offer training to infrastructure policymakers and practitioners, and we are developing high-level principles for digital public infrastructure.

The Quad also has a senior cyber group, which promotes cybersecurity standards, secure software development and skilling the cyber workforce. We will be hosting in India a gathering in November on how to protect critical infrastructure, and we actually have a virtual exercise of CERT teams as one of the next steps in that regard.

The Quad also cooperates or has started cooperating recently on space. We have organized capacity building workshops in the Indo-Pacific for many countries, and we are actually contemplating a pilot project in one of the Indian Ocean countries to monitor extreme precipitation using space-based data.

There's always been a maritime focus for Quad since its inception. In fact, the Indo-Pacific Maritime Domain Awareness Initiative was launched as an outcome of board deliberations. It is today unfolding in Pacific and Southeast Asia. We are trying to connect up our fusion centers here.

We've also been working on HADR, Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief. We have formalized guidelines, held tabletop exercises, and in fact, one very good example of Quad cooperation was there was a big landslide in Papua New Guinea. And we were able, for example I know our relief supplies were able to reach Papua New Guinea and be of help to people because our Quad partners helped to get it there.

Counter-terrorism has been a similar collaborative endeavour. We are doing our greater networking, we have already done five table-top exercises, we are working on common principles to counter-terrorism.

And when it comes to the socio-economic domain, I want to say the Quad is also working on climate action. We support Indo-Pacific countries in their energy transition, in encouraging climate information exchanges, in discussing disaster risk, resilience and capacity building.

When the COVID was on, I must remind you that the Quad countries worked together on providing vaccines. We have provided almost 400 million doses in the Indo-Pacific. And today what began as a vaccine partnership I think is evolving into a larger health security partnership. And today in the Quad we are discussing pandemic preparedness, digital health prospects and even cooperation on cancer.

So two years ago, when we had a Quad Summit in Tokyo, we had launched the Quad STEM fellowships. The first cohort has graduated, the second one will include other than Quad countries, also students from the ASEAN. There are many other aspects of the Quad, we are having policy planning discussions, digital dialogues, young leaders fellowships, think-tank networks.

So I'm sharing this as a sort of flavor, so that you understand really in a way I would say, how the Quad since 2017, since it was reincarnated, how the Quad has emerged as an important and productive platform. It does global good, it certainly contributes, it ensures free and open Indo-Pacific that promotes progress, prosperity, security and stability. And I felt today that by explaining the twin goals of my trip, the main purpose of course was Quad, but this trip gave me a chance to engage on India-Japan relations as well. I give you a full picture because one supports the other. So this is really in a sense the issues which I wanted to put before you, but I would be delighted to respond to these or if there are any other questions related to India or to Indian foreign policy, I'd be very happy to answer them.

Thank you very much.

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