Modi may tour Japan in July

India's new Prime Minister Narendra Modi will likely visit Japan next month, the foreign ministry said yesterday, in a boost for Tokyo as it looks to shore up regional alliances and counter an increasingly assertive China.
Modi, whose Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party won a landslide victory in May's elections, is set to make his maiden foreign trip as premier to neighbouring Bhutan later this month.
Foreign ministry spokesman Syed Akbaruddin said that while the (South Asian) "neighbourhood remains India's priority", Japan has offered to host Modi soon and he will likely take up the invitation in July.
Modi's first trip to the United States, meanwhile, will "most likely" be in September, Akbaruddin added.
The world is closely watching Modi's first moves as leader of the world's biggest democracy, and a visit would be a boost for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as he seeks to raise Asian support to counter China's increasing regional assertiveness.
New Delhi, like Tokyo, has a long-running territorial dispute with Beijing, whose growing military confidence is causing disquiet in Asia and beyond.
China is in a row with Japan over ownership of several islands in the East China Sea, and at odds with India over a long-running border dispute that flared into a brief war in 1961.
The Asian giant is also locked in tense maritime territorial rows with neighbours in the South China Sea, which Beijing claims almost in its entirety.
The United States, Japan's key ally, is concerned about China's growing economic and military clout and would welcome a closer relationship between New Delhi and Tokyo, which geographically bookend Beijing.
Abe and Modi exchanged friendly greetings on Twitter after his landslide win. The new Indian leader visited Japan twice before coming to power, in 2007 and in 2012.