Japan asks India to lift visa curbs
Issues demarche to New Delhi, says restrictions must be lifted
While Chinese President Xi Jinping sent a “message of thanks” to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for India’s medical aid despite a recent SinoIndian spat on evacuation flights, India is now under pressure from close friend Japan, which is unhappy over visa suspensions of Japanese nationals due to the coronavirus epidemic. Sources said Japan urged India to review the measures on Japanese citizens and sent a demarche to New Delhi, arguing Japan has a much lower number of coronavirus cases compared to severely-hit nations like China, South Korea, Iran and Italy, and shouldn’t be put in the same bracket. The government, however, is exercising extreme caution and will go by the advice of medical experts.
Even as Chinese President Xi Jinping has sent a “message of thanks” to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Indian medical aid despite a recent SinoIndian spat on evacuation flights, India is now under pressure from close friend Japan which is unhappy over visa suspensions of Japanese nationals in view of the Coronavirus epidemic. Sources said Japan has urged India to review the measures regarding Japanese citizens and issued a demarche to New Delhi, arguing that Japan has got a much lower number of Coronavirus cases compared to severely-hit countries like China, South Korea, Iran and Italy and should therefore not be placed in the same bracket. However, New Delhi is exercising extreme caution and is expected to first take to take into account advice from medical experts, given that the Indian Government does not want to take any chances.
It may be recalled that India had earlier this week suspended all regular visas/e-visas granted to nationals of Italy, Iran, South Korea and Japan. The Union health ministry had said nationals of these countries would have to seek fresh visas if they want to enter India in case there is a “compelling” need to travel here.
Aviation regulator DGCA had also stated that airports and airlines must ensure that each aircraft arriving from South Korea, Japan and Italy is subjected to disinfection process before the boarding begins for the next flight on the plane. The Government had also suspended the regular visas/e-visas granted to all foreign nationals who have travelled to China, Iran, Italy, South Korea and Japan on or after
February 1. Both Chinese and Japanese companies operating in India are feeling the heat as many of their senior functionaries are reportedly unable to travel to India in view of visas suspensions announced. Sources said this has affected the decision-making process in these companies which may in turn impact investment in India. Both Japan and China are large investors in India.
China, meanwhile, had recently allowed India to operate its third evacuation flight to Wuhan after a brief spat when New Delhi felt Beijing was delaying permission for the flight. However, the issue had been sorted out and the flight — which was carrying medical supplies like gloves, surgical masks feeding and infusion pumps and defibrillators on the onward journey — was operated a few days ago. Mr Modi had first written to Mr Xi conveying solidarity of India with China in meeting the challenge of coronavirus outbreak and had offered to provide whatever assistance we could to China.