PM Modi attends tea ceremony hosted by Abe before Indo-Japan talks

Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended a traditional tea ceremony hosted by his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe here today before the Indo-Japan talks began.

Prime Minister Modi and the Japanese delegation later began talks.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) earlier informed that Prime Minister Modi and his Japanese counterpart had agreed to elevate the relationship between the two countries "to the next level".

"India-Japan begin official talks. Agree to elevate relationship to next level," tweeted MEA official spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin.

According to tweets by the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs Syed Akbaruddin, Prime Minister Modi and PM Abe have agreed to elevate the relationship between the two countries "to the next level". Prime Minister Modi also told Abe that no country has done more to modernize India's infrastructure than Japan.

In the talks, a discussion on Investment Promotion Partnership also took place. Japan has pledged 3.5 trillion yen of public and private investment to India on a five-year period under the same.

Another important topic that was discussed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Abe was women's empowerment with both the Prime Ministers acknowledging the power of women and their importance in nation-building and development.

During the discussion, Japan offered to provide India with financial, technical and operational support to introduce the Shinkansen system or the bullet train system in India.

Japan has also agreed to remove six of India's space and defence related entities from their Foreign End User list and the two countries have affirmed the importance of the elimination of the safe havens of terrorists.

Prime Minister Modi is presently in Japan on a five-day visit, which ends on September 3.