New Delhi, Delhi, India

The newly-appointed External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar has said that India has a special relationship with Japan during a phone conversation with his Japanese counterpart Kono Taro, according to Japanese embassy readout.

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The Japanese Foreign Minister had called Jaishankar to congratulate him on his appointment as the External Affairs Minister. 

The Japanese embassy in Delhi said, "Subrahmanyam Jaishankar hopes to further expand the scope of cooperation with Japan with which India enjoys a special relationship, and looks forward to meeting Foreign Minister Kono Taro again."

During the conversation, the Japanese foreign minister said, ''India has an extremely huge role and responsibility as a global power for the realisation of a free and open Indo-Pacific."

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Indo-Pacific as a concept has been gaining currency and has the backing of Tokyo, Washington and Delhi, but Bejing sees it suspiciously. 

During the phone call, Kono confirmed the visit of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to India later this year. Abe will be visiting for the 14th India-Japan Annual Summit which alternates between the two countries. 

Last year Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Japan for the 13th Annual Summit. In a special gesture, Modi's 2018 visit was hosted by Abe for a private dinner at his ancestral home in Yamanashi, the first such reception to be extended to a foreign leader. In 2017, Abe visited PM Modi's home state of Gujarat where he was given a special welcome.

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Kono was the first foreign leader to congratulate Modi on phone for his reelection on May 23. Both leaders will be meeting by the end of this month in Osaka on the sidelines of G20 summit.

Meanwhile, Kono has invited Jaishankar to the G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in November and said "He would like to coordinate the schedule to hold a '2+2' Ministerial meeting as soon as possible to which both Japan and India agreed.

Jaishankar had served at the Indian mission in Tokyo from 1996 to 2000 as the deputy chief of the mission and knows Japanese.