Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe kicked off an official trip to India on Tuesday with the promise to boost trade and ties between the two Asian countries. Accompanied by his wife Akie and almost 200 business officials, Abe headed straight to an economic forum, flagging a bilateral partnership which aims to bolster political, diplomatic trade and cultural ties.
"Relations between the two countries now are much deeper and broader and have no comparison to what they were five decades ago," Abe said, recalling a trip by his grandfather, then-premier Nobusuke Kishi to India 50 years ago. "I am also convinced this strengthening of ties will serve world peace," he told Indian diplomats, business and political leaders.
Abe also said during his talks with his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh on Wednesday the two leaders will discuss bilateral ties and measures to firm up billions of dollars of investment projects.
Officials said Abe will be looking to flesh out the strategic partnership announced by the two countries during Singh's visit to Tokyo in December. After the talks, the two sides are expected to unveil a slew of agreements on economic, academic and cultural co-operation, officials attending the launch ceremony said.
Abe and Singh are also likely to discuss India's bid to join global civilian nuclear commerce after a gap of three decades an aide to Abe said separately. Earlier this month India unveiled details of a civilian nuclear co-operation agreement with the United States, a pact requiring the approval of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).
Japan is one of the countries in the group, which controls the sale of nuclear fuel, technology and reactors, as well as being the only nation ever attacked with atomic bombs.
"From the perspective of Japanese national sentiment, this issue entails extreme difficulty in the sense of considering possible co-operation or transfer of technology for any country which possesses nuclear weapons," the official said. "Japan would be ready to participate positively in discussions of the NSG. We would also hope India would be forthcoming in providing relevant information such as on negotiations with the International Atomic Energy Agency."
Abe, however, made no comments on the controversial nuclear deal, which has sparked off a political crisis, with communist allies of Singh's coalition government demanding its scrapping.
Tokyo will also be seeking India's support for a four-way strategic and economic partnership with Australia and the United States, the aide said. "The backbone of this idea of the quadrilateral framework is the sharing of basic values such as freedom, democracy and human rights," as well as economic clout, he said.
Japan is investing in a 100-billion-dollar industrial corridor and freight link from the capital to Mumbai, India's financial hub and an Arabian Sea port, with funding estimated at an unconfirmed 30 billion dollars.
The two countries also hope to vastly expand trade ties that stand at a mere eight billion dollars, far behind India's trade with the US or China, although it is growing at more than 20 percent a year. Analysts see the growing rapprochement between the two nations - this is the second high-level visit in less than a year - as an attempt to balance China's rising power in the region. On Wednesday, Abe will also address India's parliament.