PM Narendra Modi and Shinzo Abe to be in Guwahati on Dec’19 for India-Japan annual summit

North-eastern city Guwahati will be abuzz in December with the two day India-Japan annual summit scheduled to be held in the city. The summit, whose dates are yet to be finalised will see the attendance of Indian Prime Minister Narandra Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

A visit to the new Peace Museum located in capital city Imphal of Manipur and also a cruise in the mighty river Brahmaputra among others are some of the featuring highlights of the two day summit. The Peace Museum in Imphal is a remembrance memorial of one of the deadliest battles of the World War 2 in the year 1944 where many Japanese soldiers laid their lives.

Both India and Japan decided Guwahati as the venue focussing on north-eastern India under the Act East Forum launched by both the countries. Indian foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale along with officials from the external affairs ministry and security agencies visit the cities of Guwahati and Imphal to access the security and preparations for the summit. Two plush hotels Vivanta and Radisson Blu of Guwahati would be hosting the leaders and their delegation for the summit.

The Act East Forum, propagated by India and Japan is an effort to expand bilateral cooperation across northeast India to strengthen ties between India-Japan. The forum also stresses on collaboration between the two countries under the India’s Act East Policy and Japan’s Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy. Japan currently is assisting and coordinating with India in various projects across the northeast. They are a water supply-sewage project in Assam, a Meghalaya road project, forest management programmes in Tripura, Nagaland and Sikkim and an irrigation project in Mizoram.

Northeast India has become one of the most preferred regions for Japanese investments. Earlier in June, a statement released after a meet of Japanese delegation and DoNER officials stated that Japan is willing to invest about Rs 13,000 crores in the north-eastern region of India.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier attended the summit last year in Japan where the Japanese PM hosted a private dinner for him at his Yamanashi ancestral home.

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