"There have been discussions with Japan and this visit marked a formal move in that direction. I am hopeful that before long we will be able to put our signatures to a civil nuclear energy agreement with Japan as well," Singh told reporters on his way back from Japan and Thailand.
A joint statement issued at the end of exhaustive talks between Singh and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe this week had said the two leaders reaffirmed the importance of civil nuclear cooperation between the two countries, while recognising that nuclear safety is a priority for both governments.
Negotiations for the bilateral civil nuclear cooperation agreement have not made much headway since Japan was struck by Fukushima nuclear disaster in March, 2011.
Answering questions on progress made so far in India's Look East policy, Singh said, "I am hopeful that Look East policy of India is paying rich dividends and the results are going to improve as we move forward".
Also Read
"The Look East policy of the Government of India is not a new development. When Mr Narsimha Rao was our Prime Minister, and I was the Finance Minister, we charted out a course of action to get closer to South East Asian countries particularly ASEAN," the Prime Minister said.
"ASEAN countries are our strategic partners and there are enormous opportunities of expanding trade ties, investment relations, expanding maritime cooperation, expanding the scope of trade and investment, and now we have reached a stage where large scale flow of trade and investment is becoming a reality," he said.