NEW DELHI (TIP): Drawing the emerging contours of its bilateral relations with Japan and latter’s contribution to modernisation of Indian economy, New Delhi today said it will create a multi-polar Asia and highlighted civil nuclear energy and defence as two important fields that would set direction of the ties.

“Today, the two countries clearly see each other much more strategically. This is expressed through a wide range of contacts and activities, including in areas that are relatively new. Obviously, India’s accelerated economic growth provides new business opportunities for Japanese companies. But the logic of our current cooperation is much deeper,” Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar said in his address to the “India-Japan Colloquium” ahead of Prime Minister Shizo Abe visit next week. “A broader modernisation of the Indian economy and society is very much in Japan’s larger interest. This would help create a more multi-polar Asia that, in turn, enables a more multi-polar world,” he said.

Stating that cooperation in civil nuclear energy and in defence are two domains that portend the future direction of India-Japan ties, he said Japan could make a substantive difference to the country’s nuclear industry. In 2016, during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Japan, both countries signed a civil nuclear deal that allows Japan to export nuclear power plant technology to India.