By IANS
New Delhi : It will be after seven years that a foreign head of state or government will address the Indian parliament when Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe addresses a joint session of both houses Wednesday – a unique gesture highlighting growing ties between the two countries.
In a way, India is returning the Japanese gesture of facilitating Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to address the Diet, the Japanese parliament, during his visit to Tokyo last year.
Abe comes here Tuesday on a three-day visit.
Russian President Vladimir Putin was the last leader to have addressed parliament on Oct 4, 2000. Seven months earlier, former US president Bill Clinton addressed parliament where he urged India to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, reduce tension by resuming talks with Pakistan and strengthen ties with the United States by resolving nuclear differences.
Before Clinton, the other US president to address parliament was Jimmy Carter during his visit to India in January 1978.
Other heads of state who have addressed parliament include US president Dwight D. Eisenhower in December 1959 and Russian presidents Leonid Brezhnev and Mikhail Gorbachev respectively in December 1980 and December 1986.