Modi's begins Japanese tour, feeds fish, gifts books

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's hugely publicised and strategically important five-day tour of Japan has begun on Saturday.

Modi arrived in Japan on a five-day official visit, hoping to boost ties in infrastructure, trade, defence and civil nuclear energy. This is his first bilateral sojourn outside South Asia since he took office in May.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Modi hugged each other, and then fed fish in keeping with the tradition in Japan. Modi and Abe share similar world view on various issues and are avowedly nationalistic in their approach. True to his style, Modi gifted a Sanskrit and Japanese Bhagavad Gita and a book on Vivekananda and Japan to his Japanese counterpart.
Modi was warmly received at Osaka and immediately on landing, he witnessed the signing of a partnership agreement between Varanasi, one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, and Kyoto, which was the capital of Japan for over 1,000 years.
The partnership focuses on how to preserve heritage while building smart cities.

India is keen on early conclusion of the civil nuclear agreement with Japan, which will facilitate supply of its nuclear technology to India. The two countries have been holding talks on the issue since 2010.
With the Modi government having initiated a project for starting bullet trains in the country, that issue is also expected to engage early attention at the discussions.

While the two countries have cooperation of navies that apparently share perceptions in terms of maritime security and anti-pirate operations, negotiations are underway for sale of US-2 amphibious aircraft by Japan to India.

This is Modi's third official bilateral visit after becoming prime minister in May this year. He made bilateral visits to South Asian neighbours Bhutan and Nepal after becoming prime minister.
Besides that, the only other visit he made abroad was to Brazil for the BRICS (Brazil, India, China, Russia, South Africa) summit.