Japan, India seal $6 billion currency swap deal

TOKYO, July 1 Kyodo - Japan and India on Monday signed a bilateral currency swap arrangement in which the two countries will provide up to $6 billion in total to prevent a financial crisis, the Japanese Finance Ministry said.

The conclusion of the currency swap scheme came after then Prime Minister
Shinzo Abe and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh reached a basic agreement
on the pact when the Japanese premier visited India last August.

The bilateral currency swap deal is aimed at addressing short-term liquidity
difficulties and supplementing existing international financial arrangements,
the ministry said.

Japan, China and South Korea as well as the 10-member Association of Southeast
Asian Nations are working out measures for converting bilateral currency swap
pacts into a multilateral scheme, Japanese officials said, adding that India
may join the ASEAN-plus-three currency swap scheme in the future.
==Kyodo