Prime Minister Narendra Modi today met his Japanese counterpart who said Indo-Japan ties have the greatest potential of any bilateral relationship in the world.
The two leaders met on the sidelines of 13th ASEAN-India Summit here in the Malaysian capital.
"Working through lunch with an old friend. PM @AbeShinzo hosts PM @narendramodi for the second bilateral," External Affairs Ministry Spokesman Vikas Swarup tweeted.
Earlier Modi met his Chinese counterpart Li Keqiang.
"The India-Japan relationship has the greatest potential of any bilateral relationship in the world," Abe was quoted by Swarup as saying.
The meeting comes ahead of Abe's visit to India on December 11 to hold annual summit talks with Modi and take further the already close relations between the two major Asian economies.
In the 9th annual Indo-Japan summit talks, Modi and Abe are likely to review implementation of various decisions taken in course of last one year to boost ties, particularly in the trade and investment sector.
Modi had visited Japan from August 30 to September 3 last year during which that country had announced doubling of its private and public investment in India to about USD 34 billion over a period of five years.
(Reopens FGN 20)
"I today express my commitment that over the next three years, Japan will assist as many as 40,000 young people from India, ASEAN and elsewhere in Asia in improving their technical skills and acquiring knowledge," Abe said at a separate event.
He emphasised that for Japan, "Asia is no longer a recipient of assistance" It is instead our partner for growing together.
Asia had infrastructure demands which could reach 100 trillion yen annually, Abe told a business and investment summit here.
"The large scale state-of-the-art coal fired thermal power station planned for India's southeast region is a project that will exceed 500 billion yen," he said.
