India and Japan have deepened their engagement in the Northeast with both the countries outlining new initiatives and Japan providing three more loans.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Japan on October 28-29 for the India-Japan Annual Summit. He discussed a number of issues, including the Northeast, with Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Kenji Hiramatsu, ambassador of Japan to India, and Sujan R. Chinoy, ambassador of India to Japan, exchanged notes concerning the provision of yen loan related to seven projects in the country, three of which relate to the Northeast, in the presence of Abe and Modi in Tokyo following the summit meeting.

Japan will provide a loan of up to 5.497 billion yen for renovation and modernisation of Umiam-Umtru stage-III hydroelectric power station for promotion of renewable energy in Meghalaya.

The second loan up to 25.483 billion yen is for construction of a bridge connecting Dhubri in Assam and Phulbari in Meghalaya (approximately 20km length) under North East Road Network Connectivity Improvement Project (phase three).

The bridge will be the country’s longest river bridge. It is expected that approximately 2.95 million people will use the bridge annually and the traveling time will be reduced from approximately 8 hours 13 minutes on the alternative route to approximately 23 minutes in 2030 (two years after the project is completed).

The third loan is of 12.287 billion yen for tree-planting in Tripura under the project for sustainable catchment forest management in Tripura, where there is advancing forest area reduction and deterioration of resident’s living environment.

The India-Japan vision statement released on Monday says the two Prime Ministers welcomed the progress made for the development of the Northeast through the India-Japan Act East Forum by identifying and implementing projects for enhancing connectivity, sustainable forest and ecological management, disaster risk reduction and people-to-people exchanges.

An MEA factsheet says the Northeast is one of the main areas of India’s Act East Policy. The region also shares historical and traditional bonds with Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) countries and has the potential to be India’s springboard to the Asean region. Enhancing connectivity within the Northeast and with its neighboring countries is essential to tap its potential and presents crystallised examples of the shared vision between Japan and India, says the vision statement. Both the countries have agreed to promote Japanese language education. The forum welcomed the interest for such courses expressed by Cotton University and Gauhati University in Assam, English and Foreign Languages University, Shillong, and the National Institute of Technology in Nagaland to which Japan is prepared to provide appropriate support through Japanese Language Teachers Training Centre.