Japanese PM to pay 3-day visit to India

Sat, 26 Dec 2009

The Japanese Prime Minister, Yukio Hatoyama, is due to arrive in Mumbai, India, for a three-day official visit.

The 62-year-old prime minister, accompanied by his wife Miyuki Hatoyama, and heading a high-level delegation, will be on his first visit to India since he took office in September this year.

In Mumbai, he would be paying tribute to the victims of a November 11, 2008 terror attack that took the lives of around 176 people which was widely blamed on terrorist organizations in Pakistan.

Later, Hatoyama and his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh will hold an annual bilateral summit in New Delhi, India's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Vishnu Prakash, said on Saturday.

Trade and investment between India and Japan has been unspectacular as Japanese companies have focused mainly on China and Southeast Asia.

Bilateral trade in 2007 was $10.2 billion. Both sides aim to raise the figure to $20 billion by next year.

New Delhi is also interested in nuclear technology cooperation with Tokyo, but Japan, the only nation to have faced a nuclear attack, is reluctant to partner with countries outside the NPT.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=114729§ionid=351020406.