Guwahati: Japanese Ambassador to India, Ono Keiichi on Friday announced that Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi will make her first official visit to India since assuming office on July 1 even as he reached out to Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma to reaffirm Tokyo’s commitment to deepen ties with the state despite the cancellation of her proposed Guwahati visit.The Japanese envoy’s outreach comes days after the Sarma confirmed that the India-Japan annual summit, which was earlier expected to be held in Guwahati, would instead take place in New Delhi. The revised itinerary ended Assam’s hopes of hosting the first visit by a Japanese prime minister to the Northeast.In a post on X on Friday, Keiichi said Takaichi wrote, “Prime Minister @takaichi_sanae is coming to New Delhi on 1 July!”“On her first visit to India as PM, she will hold a summit meeting with PM @narendramodi and the two leaders will attend a big economic forum with Japan-India business leaders, making a new chapter in Japan–India relations,” Keiichi added..Hours before making the announcement, the Japanese envoy spoke with Sarma on Thursday over the phone, a move seen as an effort to reassure Assam after Guwahati was dropped from the Prime Minister’s itinerary.Sarma said on X that Keiichi reaffirmed the Japanese government’s commitment to strengthening its partnership with Assam under India’s Act East Policy.“We agreed to further strengthen our collaboration across key sectors including electronics, semiconductor, infrastructure, manufacturing and entrepreneurship,” the chief minister said in a post on X, adding that Assam looks forward to greater engagement with Japanese companies and institutions to enhance investments and economic opportunities.Responding to Sarma’s post, Keiichi thanked the chief minister for the conversation and said he looked forward to “further strengthening the partnership between Japan and Assam through closer cooperation.”The cancellation had sparked disappointment in the state, with Sarma saying the Assam government had been informed of the change but no specific reason had been cited. Reports attributed the decision to scheduling and logistical considerations.The development also revived memories of 2019, when then Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had cancelled his proposed visit to Guwahati for the India-Japan summit amid protests over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.Despite missing the opportunity to host the summit for a second time, the Japanese ambassador’s outreach signals that Tokyo intends to keep its engagement with Assam on track, particularly in sectors such as semiconductors, electronics, infrastructure and manufacturing that have become central to India-Japan economic cooperation.
