From Jaishree Balasubramanian

Vientiane:Prime Minister Narendra Modi today met his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe after arriving here and discussed ways to strengthen strategic bilateral ties.

“Discussing stronger ties with Japan…PM Narendra Modi meets Japan PM Shinzo Abe,” the Prime Minister’s Office tweeted as the almost 45 minutes-long bilateral talks began.

Modi will attend the 14th ASEAN India Summit and 11th East Asia summit tomorrow. He will also have bilaterals with leaders of Myanmar and South Korea. There could be more “pull aside” talks tomorrow with leaders, officials said.

This is Modi’s second meeting with Abe in less than six months. They had met on the sidelines of the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington in April.

Earlier, Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported that the two leaders are likely to discuss cooperation in the defence sector.

Japan’s maritime self-defence force and the Indian and US navies conducted Malabar joint maritime security exercises in June and Japanese and Indian defence ministers agreed in July to repeat the joint drill next year.

The leaders are also expected to discuss investment and other economic cooperation, the report said.

PTI