Tokyo: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today termed his Japan trip as “very successful” and hoped that India's infrastructure will improve and the country will become clean with the help of USD 35 billion promised by Japan over five years.
Winding up his official programme on the penultimate day of his five-day visit, Modi expressed gratitude to Japan for reposing “trust” in India and demonstrating its friendship with a quip “yeh fevicol se be zyada mazboot jod hai (this bond is stronger than that of fevicol)”.
“This visit has been very successful,” Modi said at the Indian community reception hosted in his honour here. “There has been talk about billions and millions. But there has never been talk of trillions,” he said, referring to 3.5 trillion Yen (USD 35 billion or 2,10,000 crore) promised by Japan to India through public and private funding over the five years for various works, including building of smart cities and cleanup of the Ganga river.
“This is a big achievement. My biggest happiness is that Japan trusted us,” he said at his last official programme after a hectic day of events and meetings. Talking in the context of trust, he referred to Japan's decision yesterday to lift ban on six Indian entities, including HAL. The ban had been imposed in the aftermath of 1998 nuclear tests.
Referring to signing of an MoU under which Varanasi will be cleaned up and developed learning from the experience of Japanese ‘smart city' Kyoto, Modi said, “we can learn from each other”.
