Slain Japanese leader Shinzo Abe considered former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh a “mentor”, and considered Prime Minister Narendra Modi a “close friend and partner”, said the former Japanese Prime Minister’s special advisor Tomohiko Taniguchi, and regretted not being able to travel to India in 2019. Speaking to The Hindu during a visit to Delhi last week, Mr. Taniguchi, who as Mr. Abe’s speech-writer, had helped draft his famous “confluence of two seas” speech in 2007, also disclosed that Mr. Shinzo Abe had planned to deliver a deeply emotional speech during his scheduled visit to Manipur in 2019, at the memorial to the 1944 Battle of Imphal, one of the biggest battles during the Second World War.
“Over time, Shinzo Abe looked up to Manmohan Singh and he respected Prime Minister Singh... he said Manmohan Singh is one of the few people, [he] could call [his] mentor.” Mr. Taniguchi said, adding that the two men met often even after Mr. Abe’s first term as PM in 2007, when he had stepped down over a debilitating illness, and again when Mr. Abe returned as Prime Minister (2012-2020). He said that that Mr. Abe’s relationship with Prime Minister Modi was also “unique”.
