A look back at Japan's former PM Shinzo Abe's camaraderie with Narendra Modi
During his second term as PM, Shinzo Abe joined hands with Narendra Modi to take the bilateral ties between India and Japan to greater heights.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi Tuesday joined several global leaders to pay tributes to Japan's former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at his state funeral in Tokyo. Abe was cremated in July after a private funeral at a Tokyo temple days after he was assassinated while giving a campaign speech on a street in Nara, a city in western Japan.
Shinzo Abe and Narendra Modi
The former Japanese PM shared a bond of friendship with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi, with both the leaders having displayed their camaraderie several times when they met each other.
Ahead of PM Modi’s arrival in Yamanashi in October 2018 to attend the 13th India-Japan annual summit, Abe had said that the former was one of his most "dependable" friends.
Abe stepped down as Japan’s PM in 2020 almost a year before his term was scheduled to end, owing to his chronic illness. Back then, PM Modi had said he was “pained” to hear about Abe’s ill health and wished him speedy recovery.
“Pained to hear about your ill health, my dear friend @ShinzoAbe. In recent years, with your wise leadership and personal commitment, the India-Japan partnership has become deeper and stronger than ever before. I wish and pray for your speedy recovery,” Modi had tweeted.
PM Modi also tweeted a 2018 photograph of the two leaders at an informal meeting during the 13th India-Japan Summit that took place at a resort near Mount Fuji in Japan in October 2018.
In his first stint in 2006-07, Abe visited India and addressed Parliament. During his second stint, he visited India thrice (January 2014, December 2015, September 2017) — the most visits by any Japanese PM. During his second term as PM, Abe joined hands with Modi to take the bilateral ties between the two countries to greater heights.
While after becoming PM in 2014, Narendra Modi chose Japan for his first bilateral visit outside the neighbourhood. The duo agreed to upgrade the bilateral relationship to “Special Strategic and Global Partnership”.
When Modi went to Japan in 2014, the Indo-Japan nuclear deal was still uncertain, with Tokyo sensitive about a pact with a non-Nuclear-Proliferation-Treaty member country.
Abe’s government convinced the anti-nuclear hawks in Japan to sign the agreement in 2016. The pact was key to India’s deals with US and French nuclear firms, which were either owned by or had stakes in Japanese firms.