PM arrives in Japan on 3-day trip to cement bilateral ties

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrived here today on a three-day visit to further cement India's strategic economic, political and security relations with Japan and push for a civil nuclear energy cooperation deal.
Singh, accompanied by his wife Gursharan Kaur, was accorded a red carpet welcome upon his arrival here.
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.
"I look forward to further cementing our ties with Japan," Singh said in a statement on his arrival.

"India and Japan have a strategic and global partnership. There are enormous potentialities for further enriching our relationship, deepening it and brightening it in economic relations, political relations and security relations," Singh said.
"In all areas, there is enormous potential for widening and strengthening our relations with Japan."

He said that the people of India have "fondness" for the people of Japan.
Singh's visit, originally scheduled for November last year, was postponed following the announcement of general elections in Japan in December.
Meanwhile, reacting to reports that there are issues in Japan on a bilateral civilian nuclear deal with India, official sources said, "India is quite happy to proceed at the pace determined by the Japanese side."

"There are sensitivities in the Japanese side particularly after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster and we respect that," they 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."
The sources also dismissed reports of India going slow on ties with Japan so as not to annoy China.