‘A great friend and well-wisher of India’: Sonia Gandhi on slain ex-Japan PM Shinzo Abe

Japan’s former prime minister, Shinzo Abe, was a ‘great friend and well-wisher of India’, Congress president Sonia Gandhi said on Friday as she condoled the 67-year-old politician’s assassination.

“I am shocked at the assassination of Mr. Shinzo Abe, former Prime Minister of Japan. He did much to expand and deepen the bilateral relationship between our two countries. I recall my meeting with him very fondly and vividly,” a Congress press statement quoted Gandhi as saying.

She further described the ex-Japanese premier’s demise as a ‘huge misfortune’ not only for the island nation, but for the international community as a whole.

A whole host of leaders from the grand old party condoled Abe’s demise. While Rahul Gandhi, in a tweet, said that Abe ‘leaves behind a lasting legacy in the Indo-Pacific’, ex-prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh described the now-deceased leader as his ‘friend’.

Meanwhile, from the ruling side, several leaders, including prime minister Narendra Modi, reacted to the Liberal Democratic Party (SDP) leader’s untimely death. PM Modi, in particular, recalled his association with his erstwhile Japanese counterpart, which, he remarked, ‘goes back many years’.

As a mark of respect, India will observe day-long national mourning on Saturday, the prime minister announced.

Shinzo Abe, the longest-serving PM of Japan who served a total of four terms in office, was shot at earlier today while delivering an election speech in the city of Nara.

He was transported to the Nara Medical University at 12:20pm and passed away at 5:03pm (local time) due to excessive loss of blood, the hospital said.