Narendra Modi to visit Japan in July

New Delhi: Indicative of the importance Prime Minister Narendra Modi attaches to India’s bilateral ties with Japan and India’s ‘Look East’ policy, he has decided to visit Tokyo next month itself.

The Japan visit is just one of the many foreign trips that Mr Modi is slated to make in the next six months. The PM’s diplomatic calendar is expected to be choc-a-bloc not only with foreign trips but also with incoming ones from world leaders queuing up to engage with his government.

In yet another a measure of the importance the government wants to accord to the immediate neighbour, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj is likely to visit Bangladesh this month with the neighbourhood being India’s priority.

The swift outreach to Japan by the government is not unexpected as Tokyo unlike many nations did not boycott Mr Modi as Gujarat CM following the 2002 communal riots in his state.

In the new PM’s crowded diplomatic diary is a visit to the United States in late September. Apart from attending the UN General Assembly session, he is slated to have a summit-level meeting with US President Barack Obama, dates for which are being finalised.