M A I N   N E W S

Manmohan Singh arrives in Japan

Tokyo, May 27
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrived here today on a three-day visit to Japan to invigorate bilateral strategic ties and push for a civil nuclear energy cooperation deal. Singh will hold exhaustive talks with his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe on Wednesday on the entire gamut of bilateral ties with special focus on giving boost to cooperation in defence, economic, energy and other areas.

Singh accompanied by his wife Gursharan Kaur arrived here, his first halt in two nation tour, described Japan as a “key regional and global partner for India”.

Official sources in the Indian side dismissed reports of India going slow on ties with Japan so as not to annoy China. “There are sensitivities in the Japanese side particularly after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster and we respect that,” official sources said.

“When Japan is keen to see that whatever it does is in the direction of strengthening non-proliferation regime, India’s own view is that civilian nuclear energy cooperation with Japan will only further strengthen non-proliferation regime.

“India is quite happy to proceed at the pace determined by the Japanese side,” the sources said while reacting to reports that there are issues in Japan on a bilateral nuclear deal with India.

Singh’s visit, originally scheduled for November last year, was postponed following the announcement of the General Elections in Japan. — PTI