India PM Modi to visit Japan ‘likely in July’
Leaders of India and Japan to meet in Tokyo in July with regional security, territorial integrity and China likely to be high on the agenda
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi will “likely” visit Japan in July, the foreign ministry said on Friday, after Japanese media suggested the trip could happen as early as this month.
The Indian foreign ministry said Modi would head to Japan next month and the United States “most likely” in September after he makes his maiden trip abroad as premier to India’s northeastern neighbour Bhutan later in June.
“The prime minister has received an invitation to visit Japan at an early date ... the month is likely to be July,” ministry spokesman Syed Akbaruddin told a news briefing.
But “the [South Asian] neighbourhood remains India’s priority”, the spokesman added.
Modi invited leaders of Bhutan and other South Asian countries when he took office in May after his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party won a majority on pledges to re-invigorate India’s sluggish economy.
Still, Tokyo’s high position on Modi’s foreign travel itinerary would mark a diplomatic coup for Japan whose Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is looking to boost his country’s global influence and shore up regional alliances to counter an increasingly assertive China, analysts say.