Japan to double its investments in India to $2.5 billion

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will tell his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi at a summit on Monday that Japan aims to double its direct investment in India in five years from some US$2 billion (S$2.5 billion) last year, the Nikkei business daily reported.

Modi, on his first major foreign visit since a landslide election win in May, arrived on Saturday for a five-day trip aimed at capitalising on a personal affinity with Abe to bolster security and business ties in the face of an assertive China.

The two leaders are also likely to agree to speed up talks on a nuclear energy pact, the Nikkei said, although hopes of striking a similar accord to one reached with the United States in 2008 had faded in the run-up to the visit.

Japan wants explicit guarantees from India, which has not signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, to limit atomic tests and allow closer inspection of its facilities to ensure that spent fuel is not used to make bombs.

Reuters