New Delhi: In probably his shortest trip abroad, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be in Japan for around 16 hours to attend the state funeral of former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday.
Abe, Japan’s longest-serving prime minister with nine years at the helm, was assassinated by a gunman during an election campaign on July 8. The accused claimed he shot Abe for his links with the Unification Church, which had allegedly bankrupted his mother.
Less than a week after the assassination, Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida announced a state funeral for Abe. It was a significant decision as it was only the second fully-funded state funeral for a prime minister in the post-war period. The last one was in 1967 for Shigeru Yoshida, who signed the 1951 San Francisco peace treaty that ended the occupation of Japan by the Allied powers.
Since the announcement, there has been a popular backlash criticising the funeral over its costs and revelations over the extensive links of the Church with the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). Japan plans to spend around $11.5 million on the funeral, mostly on security and hosting foreign delegations.
Around 20 world leaders and representatives from 100 countries will take part in the funeral at Nippon Budokan hall.
Ahead of Modi’s departure on Monday night, Indian foreign secretary Vinay Kwatra claimed that the visit would be an “opportunity for him to honour the memory of former Prime Minister Abe, who he considered a dear friend and a great champion of India-Japan relationship”. There had been an outpouring of tribute for Abe across the Indian political spectrum, and the government announced a day of mourning on July 9.
Kwatra also noted that Modi had a “personal bond of trust and friendship” with Abe that spanned over a decade.
I will be conveying heartfelt condolences to Prime Minister Kishida and Mrs. Abe on behalf of all Indians. We will continue working to further strengthen India-Japan relations as envisioned by Abe San. @kishida230
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) September 26, 2022
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Besides the funeral-related ceremonies and a meeting with Akie Abe, widow of Abe, Modi will also have a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Kishida on Tuesday. The discussions will take the direction of a “very quick overview and assessment of the overall relationship, its current status, its trajectory, its progress, and the measures that they both need to take, to progress it further”, stated Kwatra.
In total, the duration of the visit “would stretch anywhere between 12 to 16 hours basically from the departure (in New Delhi) to the departure from Tokyo”.
While India and Japan have been largely aligned on the Indo-Pacific, the two capitals have sharply diverged their position on the Ukraine war. India has been one of the few democracies that have refrained from publicly criticising Russia. On the other hand, Japan has fiercely condemned Moscow for invading Ukraine and joined the West in imposing economic sanctions.
During Kishida’s visit to India in March this year, Ukraine had been at the top of his agenda.
While the Indian side said no other bilateral meetings had been scheduled, Tokyo will see the largest gathering of world leaders since Queen Elizabeth’s funeral. The participants include US Vice President Kamala Harris, Vietnamese President Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, European Council President Charles Michel and Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe.
According to Japanese media reports, a massive security blanket will encompass Tokyo, with protests against the funeral expected to be held on the same day.
