PM on two-day visit to Japan starting October 28: MEA

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be on a two-day visit to Japan starting October 28 to take part in an annual summit between the two nations and will engage with his counterpart Shinzo Abe on a range of issues including defence and regional security.

This will be the 13th annual summit and the fifth one to be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale told reporters.

"Regional security will be another topic. We presume that given the interest Japan has in issues related to the Korean peninsula and DPRK, this matter will be discussed. We will certainly raise our concerns over terrorism and other trans-border crimes which are of importance to us," he said.

He said India is also hoping to have some kind of synergy or integration between Modi's Ayushman Bharat scheme, which is the largest medicare programme of its kind globally, and the Japanese programme which is called Asia Health and Wellbeing Initiative.

"How we dovetail this and how we leverage Japan's strength in certain areas including medical equipments, hospitals and others is something that the two leaders can explore," Gokhale said.