Currency swap and civil nuclear deals on talks agenda.
India and Japan will on Wednesday discuss a $10-billion currency swap agreement and revive civil nuclear cooperation negotiations.
The two countries will also assess progress of Compreh-ensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) that will see about 94 per cent tariff reduction in goods ranging from cars to shrimps and easier movement of nurses and chefs between them.
The issues will be discussed during the visit of Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, who is coming to India for the first time after assuming charge.
During the two-day visit, he is to address FICCI, CII and Assocham as part of the India-Japan Global Partnership Summit- 2013. He is expected to arrive on Tuesday.
Details of the currency arrangement are with the finance ministries and prime ministers of the two countries, Gautam Bambawale, Joint Secretary (East Asia) in the External Affairs Ministry, told reporters here on Monday. Under the deal, central banks of the two countries are likely to give each other $5 billion to intervene in the market in case of such a need.
The two countries had signed a similar deal in 2008, but its size totalled $3 billion. It expired without any country resorting to the currency swap for stabilising the currencies.
This latest currency agreement, if signed, would help the Reserve Bank of India help the rupee gain some ground in the wake of its constant slide against the dollar.
The rupee has depreciated around 20 per cent since August.
On if both sides would also seek to revive the nuclear negotiations that stalled after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in March 2011, Bambawale said, “I think this will be a subject that will be discussed between the two Prime Ministers at the summit.”
There have been three rounds of formal-level negotiations. Bambawale said both countries did engage in informal talks on civilian nuclear cooperation after the Fukushima incident.
“I am quite sure that this is a subject that will be discussed between the two Prime Mini-sters. What is the outcome of the discussions, I won’t be able to tell you. We can leave it to the two Prime Ministers,” he said.
Both the Prime Ministers are also expected to discuss various bilateral, regional and global issues.
In February, India and Japan signed the CEPA, which came into effect from August, under which both sides have agreed to achieve $25-billion worth of bilateral trade by 2014 from $13.2 billion now.
About 800 Japanese companies operate in India. In 2010-2011 Japanese foreign direct investments totalled $3.62 billion.
India continues to be the largest recipient of Japanese Official Development Assi-stance (ODA). There are more than 60 projects under implementation with Japanese loan assistance. The two Prime Ministers are likely to discuss Japanese involvement and assistance to major infrastructure development projects in India, such as the Dedicated Freight Corridor, West and Delhi-Mumbai industrial corridors, according to a statement issued by the Ministry of External Affairs.
Earlier this year, Japan committed to provide India a loan of Rs 2,257 crore for infrastructure projects in Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Delhi.
