India and Japan on Wednesday decided to elevate their "strategic and global partnership" to a new dimension, pledging to double trade to 20 billion dollars following a summit between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe in New Delhi, according to the DPA. "We have today agreed to lay down a roadmap to impart a new dimension to our strategic and global partnership. This is a comprehensive and forward-looking vision of how our two countries will move ahead in the coming years," Singh told reporters at a joint press conference with the Japanese leader. "The economic partnership is at the core of our partnership and we have set a trade target of 20 billion dollars by 2010," Singh added. According to official data, two-way trade between the countries could reach 10 billion dollars in 2007. The two countries signed a series of agreements, mainly aimed at expanding bilateral trade while promising to work for the early conclusion of a comprehensive economic partnership agreement (CEPA). Abe and Singh held wide-ranging talks on cooperation in UN reforms and the civilian nuclear field in the backdrop of a landmark India-US nuclear agreement as well as discussions on the strategic quadrilateral comprising India, Japan, Australia and the US.
