Surrounded by lush spring beauty at iconic Buddha Jayanti Park, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida were seen relishing tangy golgappas and aam panna on Monday. Sharing glimpses of the ‘power snack’, PM Modi posted photos and a video on his official Twitter and Instagram accounts.
The menu had an eclectic mix of fried idlis, aam panna, golgappas and kulhad wali chai. The location of this meeting was to showcase the link between two Asia powers that goes back centuries. The Buddha Jayanti Park, located behind the Rashtrapati Bhawan in the Central Ridge Forest area, was developed to mark the 2,500th birth anniversary of Lord Buddha. The park was inaugurated by then PM Lal Bahadur Shastri on October 25, 1964.
After enjoying the golgappas, both Prime Ministers were seen taking a stroll around the park. Sitting on a bench in the park, the leaders were seen engrossed in a conversation. Officials say that PM Modi has also gifted Bal Bodhi tree’s sapling to his Japanese counterpart.
Amid the growing presence of China in the Indo-Pacific region, Kishida’s India visit gains a lot of significance. Japan has announced an ambitious plan with India as its partner to ensure ‘stability’ and ‘free movement’ in the Indo-Pacific region. In their talks, the two prime ministers largely focused on significantly boosting cooperation in areas of clean energy, semiconductors and co-development of military hardware besides exploring ways to deal with regional security challenges amidst the increasing assertiveness of China.
Both Prime Ministers are understood to have discussed Japan’s G7 presidency as well as India’s G20 presidency. The leaders also held talks to bolden the Global South in both processes.
In an official statement, PM Modi said that the development of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed rail project is on the right track. Talking about the bilateral trade, PM Modi said that, “Last year, we had set a target of Japanese investment of 5 trillion yen in India in the next 5 years, that is, Rs 3,20,000 crore. It is a matter of satisfaction that there has been good progress in this direction.”
(With inputs from PTI)