PM heading to Japan, major deals expected

NEW DELHI: The Indian Foreign Office would like to dismiss it as mere coincidence but it’s more than just an accident of timing that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should be visiting Japan so soon after hosting Chinese President Hu Jintao in New Delhi.

 

The PM goes to Tokyo next week, from December 13 to 16, for a bilateral exchange that will be monitored closely by world capitals from Beijing to Washington because of the implications of the growing warmth between India and Japan for power equations in Asia. With a gap of just three weeks separating India’s interaction with the Asian giants, comparisons are inevitable. The Hu visit was strictly businesslike, the bonhomie that could have been, marred by ill-timed claims on Arunachal Pradesh from the Chinese envoy.

 

The PM’s Japan sojourn promises to be vastly different. Indian officials are keeping their cards close to their chest but there are indications that the government expects to make big announcements in Tokyo, breathing life into a multi-dimensional relationship that has yet to live up to its potential.

 

Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon said on Wednesday that it would be premature to say anything at this point. However, he dropped enough hints that both sides are expecting the forthcoming visit to take forward their fledgling partnership on the political, strategic and economic fronts.