Japan Minister Hopes to Win Over as Many Twitter Followers as Indian Defenсe Minister

Taro Kono, a Liberal Democratic Party politician, has been a member of Japan's House of Representatives since 1996, and previously served as minister of foreign affairs and minister of defence under former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Japanese Minister of Administrative Affairs Taro Kono has hailed Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh for having more Twitter followers than any of his foreign counterparts. 

Kono, himself a former defence minister, says he hopes to win as many followers on the microblogging site. 

私がフォロワー数で目指すは、一緒に仕事もしたインドの防衛大臣。 pic.twitter.com/EmojG4ZWNe

— 河野太郎 (@konotarogomame) February 8, 2021

​Singh currently has over 19.4 million followers, while Kono has about 2.2 million. 

よろしくお願いします@konotarogomame さん https://t.co/Zmnv9PQGAu

— Rajnath Singh (@rajnathsingh) February 8, 2021

Following his remarks, the Japanese minister says he received a message from Singh in Japanese – many people of Twitter wrote that they hope Kono can build a good relationship with India as a result. 

India and Japan share close defence ties. In 2019 the two nations held their inaugural foreign and defence ministerial dialogue in a bid to boost their special strategic partnership.

When they met in 2020, the two ministers outlined their commitment to bilateral security cooperation under the framework of the India-Japan Special Strategic and Global Partnership.