Prime Minister Narendra Modi‘s choice to host Japanese PM Shinzo Abe in Guwahati and Imphal in mid-December is aimed at getting more Japanese investment for the northeast, union government officials said.
They told Northeast Now that Abe will be shown the progress in some of the twelve projects that the Japanese are already funding in the region.
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“But a list of fresh projects have been drawn up mostly in the realm of infrastructure, for which Japanese financing may be sought,” one DoNER ministry official said.
While Modi will host Abe in Guwahati in mid-December for the 14th edition of the India-Japan Summit, he will take the Japanese PM to Imphal for visiting Second World War battlefields, especially the Peace Museum there.
The exact date of the summit is yet to be announced.
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MEA officials said Modi will play up the Netaji Subhas Bose factor to draw a special connect with the Japanese PM.
“Unlike other Indian PMs, Modi plays up the Bose factor strongly not just to undermine the Congress domestically, but also to connect to Japan,” said political analyst Sabyasachi Basu Roy Choudhuri.
Scores of soldiers of Netaji’s INA died fighting the Allied forces alongside the Japanese in the battle of Imphal during the last phase of World War 2.