NEW DELHI: Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who is on a two-day visit to India, tried different Indian delicacies, including ‘gol-gappe’, ‘aam panna’ and ‘lassi’ during a visit to the Buddha Jayanti Park in Delhi with PM Narendra Modi on Monday.
The visuals showed PM Modi and Kishida having a conversation over lassi. The two leaders even tried their hands at churning as the caterers appeared to explain the recipe of the famous Indian drink. Later, the two leaders also tried ‘aam panna.’ Japanese PM also tried ‘gol-gappe’, the common Indian street food known by different names across the country.
PM Narendra Modi shared a video on Facebook which showed Kishida eating gol-gappe. He shared the video alongside the caption, “My friend Japan PM Fumio Kishida enjoyed Gol-Gappas.” Before enjoying the Indian delicacies, the two leaders visited the Bal Bodhi Tree at Buddha Jayanti Park in
Delhi. PM Modi gifted a sapling of Bal Bodhi tree to PM Kishida, Ministry of External Affairs official spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said in a tweet.
Earlier in the day, Kishida arrived in New Delhi for a two-day trip to India. The visiting Japanese PM held a meeting with PM Modi at the Hyderabad House. Kishida invited PM Modi for the G7 leaders meeting scheduled to be held in Hiroshima in May this year.
After the meeting, PM Modi in a joint press statement said, “Today Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida invited me to the G7 Leaders’ Summit which will be held in Hiroshima in May. I thank him for this.
“I welcome Japanese PM Fumio Kishida to India. In the last one year, PM Fumio Kishida and I have met several times and every time I’ve felt his positivity and commitment to the India-Japan bilateral relationship. His today’s visit will be beneficial to maintain this momentum,” he added.
In his statement after the talks, PM Modi said this meeting aims to give a voice to the global South and strengthen the India-Japan relationship. He said, “I have spoken to him regarding India’s G20 priorities in detail. Our main priority is to give voice to the needs of the global south.” He said that the culture that believes in “Vasudhaiv Kutumbakam” believes in taking everyone along.
In a joint statement after meeting PM Modi, Kishida called India an “indispensable partner” of Japan. He said, “It gives me great pleasure to be able to unveil my new vision on the soil of India which is our indispensable partner in realising a free and open Indo-Pacific.”
In the joint press statement, the Japanese PM said, “I formally invited PM Modi to G7 Hiroshima Summit and on the spot, my invitation was immediately accepted.”
The two leaders spoke about challenges faced by the international community and decided to have close cooperation between G7 and G20 as the two countries are holding the presidencies of the summits, respectively. Kishida said that Japan affirmed its strong commitment to uphold the international order.
“PM Modi shared his thoughts on various themes in the international community, especially in areas of development finance, food & security, and climate energy, Kishida said.
In his remarks regarding strengthening the bilateral ties between the two nations, Kishida said that New India is Japan’s special strategic global partner and a wide range of discussions took place regarding it.
“Our economic cooperation with India which continues to grow rapidly will not only support the further development of India but also create significant economic opportunities for Japan. In this regard, we welcome that steady progress is being made towards realising 5 trillion yen of public & private investment in financing from Japan to India in 5 years,” Kishida said further during the joint press statement in New Delhi.
Sharing details regarding the meeting with Kishida, PM Modi in a tweet wrote, “Held excellent talks with PM @kishida230. We discussed boosting India-Japan ties in sectors like defence, healthcare, technology, and other issues. We also discussed ways to increase competitiveness in logistics, food processing, MSME, textiles and more.” (ANI)