Osaka: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe held talks on Thursday during which they discussed a range of issues of mutual interest, the first meeting between the two leaders since the start of Japan's Reiwa era.
The prime minster said that President Ram Nath Kovind will participate in the coronation ceremony of Emperor Naruhito in October.
Modi thanked Abe for his warm welcome to him and the Indian delegation visiting Japan for the G20 Summit. He also appreciated Japan's leadership as the G20 chairman.
"PM @narendramodi met Japanese PM @AbeShinzo ahead of the #G20Summit. Discussed broad range of topics of mutual interest. PM said that he was looking forward to visit of PM Abe to India later this year for the Annual Summit," Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted.
The Prime Minister congratulated Abe and Japan's citizens for the start of the Reiwa era. The term for the new era is made up of the two characters Rei and Wa. Rei can mean "commands" or "order", as well as "auspicious" or "good".
Wa often means "harmony", and is also used in the Japanese word for "peace" - "hei-wa".
Besides Abe, Modi is expected to participate in several plurilateral and bilateral meetings including a meeting with US President Donald Trump.
In his departure statement ahead of his visit to Osaka, Modi said he looked forward to discussing major challenges and opportunities faced by the world with other global leaders.
"Women empowerment, issues related to digitalisation and artificial intelligence, and progress in achieving Sustainable Development Goals and in our common efforts to address major global challenges such as terrorism and climate change form the rich agenda of the summit," he said.
The prime minister said that the summit will provide an important opportunity to reinforce India's strong support to "reformed multilateralism", which is crucial for preserving rule-based international order in the fast-changing world.
In the summit, he added the progress achieved in combating global challenges like terrorism and climate change will be discussed and it will also be a platform to share India's development experience of the past five years.
India has participated in all the G20 summits held so far and will host the summit in 2022 for the first time.
Modi will hold 10 bilateral meetings, including the ones with France, Japan, Indonesia, US, and Turkey, on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Japan.
India, Russia, and China are expected to hold a trilateral meeting (RIC). The Prime Minister will also be meeting leaders of BRICS countries.
The summit is centred around the theme "Human-Centred Future Society" and will adopt a declaration.
Besides India and the host Japan, other participants are the US, UK, European Union, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Russia, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Korea, South Africa, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey.
Read: Indian community welcomes PM with 'Modi-Modi' chants in Japan's Osaka
