Sixth Indo-Japan SAMVAD Conference- Highlights

Prime Minister Narendra Modi virtually addressed the Sixth Indo-Japan SAMVAD Conference on December 21, 2020. The series of Indo-Japan SAMVAD conferences began 5 years ago in the year 2015 with an aim to highlight shared values of humanism, democracy, freedom, Ahimsa, and tolerance of both the countries; to encourage dialogue and debate; and to encourage the ancient tradition of scholarly and spiritual exchanges. This was the 6th conference in the series.

Key Points- Creation of Buddhist Literature Library

  • PM started his address by thanking Japan for providing full support to SAMVAD.
  • While appraising the efforts of the forum in promoting the teachings of Lord Buddha, PM Modi proposed to create a library of traditional Buddhist literature and scriptures.
  • India will be creating such a library and providing resources for it.
  • The library on Buddhist literature will collect digital copies of all such literature and scriptures from various countries.
  • The library will then translate the digital copies collected from different countries and make them available for all monks and scholars of Buddhism for free.
  • The library will not only be a collection of Buddhist literature but will also serve as a platform for research.

India and Japan

India and Japan have signed an Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement in September 2020 for allowing the exchange of supplies and services between both the countries in exercises they participate in.

India and Japan are members of QUAD including Australia and the US. Recently, the QUAD countries conducted a joint naval exercise- Malabar in the Arabian Sea.