Mr. Masahiko Koumura, Foreign Minister of Japan, visited India from 3-5 August 2008, during which he had the Second Round of the Ministerial Level Dialogue with the External Affairs Minister of India, Mr. Pranab Mukherjee. Mr. Koumura also had meetings with Dr. Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India, Mr. P. Chidambaram, Minister of Finance, Mr. A.K. Antony, Minister of Defence, and Mr. Kamal Nath, Minister of Commerce and Industry.

    At the Ministerial-level Dialogue on 5^th August, the Japanese and Indian Foreign Ministers confirmed to continue to arrange high level exchanges such as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit during this year, and to look into the direction of bilateral security cooperation.

    In the area of economy, both the Foreign Ministers agreed to accelerate the negotiation of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) in order to come to an agreement before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Japan.

Mr. Koumura, Foreign Minister of Japan with Mr. Pranab Mukherjee for the Second Round of the Ministerial Level Dialogue




Mr. Masahiko Koumura, Foreign Minister of Japan with Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh

Foreign Minister Koumura stated that Japan would continue to support Indian initiatives for infrastructure-build up, and pledged to extend soft loans to five projects as the first batch of FY 2008, amounting to 104, 656 million Yen (Rs.41,203 million).

The foreign ministers agreed to continue to strengthen youth exchanges, and discussed about Japanese cooperation to a new Indian Institute of Technology (IIT).

Besides the bilateral issues, the foreign ministers also exchanged views on regional and global issues such as climate change, South-East Asian situation, China, and other relevant questions.

In the meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Foreign Minister Masahiko Koumura, both the Ministers reconfirmed to further promote Japan-India Strategic Global Partnership towards Prime Minister Singh’s visit to Japan.

    As in the previous years, the Embassy of Japan will be holding a ‘Japan Cultural Month’ in October-November 2008, through which a bouquet of cultural events showcasing different facets of Japanese art and culture would be presented to the Indian audience.

    The main highlights lined up for the cultural month are:

1)  Fukuoka Fair in Delhi (17-18 October)
2) Exhibition on Zenko-ji Buddhist Temple, at the National Museum, New Delhi (11 November-10 December)
3) Japan Education Fair at Daulat Ram College, Delhi University (30 October), and at Garware College, Karve Road, Pune-4 (1 November)
4) Japan Quiz Contest (7 November) 5) Japanese Film Festival in Chandigarh (15 – 21 November)
6) North Region Japanese Language Speech Contest in
New Delhi (8 November)
7) Inter-school Origami Competition at Tagore International School, New Delhi (14 November)

Background information on some of the main events:

Fukuoka Fair in Delhi

    The Fukuoka Prefecture in Japan, which concluded a friendship agreement with the National Capital Territory of Delhi in March 2007, is scheduled to organize a Fukuoka Fair in New Delhi from 17 to18 October 2008. As part of the agreement, a Delhi Fair was held in Fukuoka last year, through which Indian