By IANS
New Delhi : Emphasising that bilateral cooperation between the two major Asian economies – India and Japan – was getting stronger, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said here Wednesday that a “broader Asia” was taking on a “distinct form”.
“The Pacific and the Indian Oceans are now bringing about a dynamic coupling of seas of freedom and of prosperity. A broader Asia that broke away geographical boundaries is now beginning to take on a distinct form,” Abe said while addressing the joint session of parliament.
Talking to a packed audience in parliament’s Central Hall, Abe quoted spiritual leader Swami Vivekananda on several occasions and said bilateral trade between the two countries would reach $20 billion in the next three years.
Abe, who arrived Tuesday with his wife Akie and a 243-strong business delegation representing top corporate houses of his country, was given a ceremonial welcome on the forecourt of Rashtrapati Bhavan earlier in the morning.
President Pratibha Patil and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh were among those who formally welcomed Abe, who is on a three-day visit to India.
Abe is the third Japanese leader to address Indian parliament, following prime ministers Yasuhiro Nakasone in 1984 and Toshiki Kaifu in 1990.
During his talks with Manmohan Singh, scheduled later in the day, Abe is expected to seek cooperation from India, one of the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitters, in his Cool Earth 50 initiative aimed at halving global emissions by 2050.
The two leaders’ discussions regarding India’s civil nuclear agreement with the US will also be the focus of attention.
Abe will stop Thursday at Kolkata in West Bengal, where he is set to meet Prashanta Pal, the son of the late Indian judge Radhabinod Pal, who dissented from the post-World War II Tokyo tribunal that convicted Japanese war criminals.