Abe invites new Indian PM Modi to make Japan his first stop

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has swiftly invited incoming Indian leader Narendra Modi to make Tokyo the destination of his first overseas trip.

Abe spent 15 minutes talking with Modi by phone on Friday, according to Japan's foreign ministry, during which he congratulated the incoming Indian leader on his Bharatiya Janata Party's resounding election win and expressed his desire to improve the bilateral relationship.

From Tokyo's point of view, India is an increasingly important market for Japanese firms and talks are already under way to export nuclear technology to the energy-hungry nation. Japan is also keen to sell other infrastructure know-how to developing nations, including high-speed train networks.

Arguably more important for Japan is the creation of a coalition of nations throughout the Asia-Pacific that will work together to face down China as it makes increasingly belligerent territorial claims.

Vietnam and the Philippines are already aligned with Japan, in large part due to the ongoing frictions in the South China Sea. Some hoped India - which has had its own territorial disagreements with China - might become a valuable new ally .

But analysts believe there is unlikely to be a major change in direction on India's attitude towards China, which Jun Okumura, a visiting scholar at the Meiji Institute for Global Affairs, characterises as "a gradual but limited development of the bilateral security relationship".