PM reaches Tokyo, says enormous potential for Indo-Japan relations

Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh interacting with the media, on his arrival at Haneda International Airport, in Tokyo, Japan on May 27.

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Jaideep Sarin | 28 May, 2013
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh landed in Tokyo Monday saying that there were "enormous potentialities" for Indo-Japan relations.

"India and Japan have a strategic and global partnership. There are enormous potentialities for further enriching our relationship, deepening it and brightening it in the economic relations, security relations, in all areas there is enormous potential for widening and strengthening our relationship with Japan," he told media after arriving at Tokyo's Haneda international airport Monday evening.

"The people of India have fondness for the people of Japan. I look forward to further cementing our ties with Japan," he said. The prime minister arrived here for the first leg of a five-day tour that will also take him to Thailand.

Manmohan Singh, accompanied by National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon and other officials, will be in Tokyo for a three-day bilateral visit during which he will hold talks with his counterpart Shinzo Abe.

Civil nuclear cooperation talks will be high on the agenda, officials said.

Economic and regional and international issues will also figure high in the talks. Discussions on the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) and the high-speed train are likely to be held.

India is likely to seek Japanese investment in various projects, officials said.

The prime minister will also discuss energy cooperation, including on frozen seabed gas hydrates -- a breakthrough in Japan that India is interested in.

The bilateral summit was originally slated to be held November last year but was postponed after Japan decided to go in for elections.

"We have been discussing a civil nuclear cooperation agreement and hope to make more progress by end of this year," Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai said earlier.

The prime minister is also to address Japanese businesspersons where he will "highlight major opportunities in India and seek greater Japanese private sector investment in India", said the foreign secretary.

After concluding his Japan visit, the prime minister will go to Thailand May 30-31 from where he will return home.