Across Asia: India

Japan PM begins visit

Yukio Hatomaya, who has promised to forge a new place for east Asia in international diplomacy, opened three days of talks in India yesterday focusing on engineering a further thaw in relations and boosting trade. Japan and India, Asia's largest and third largest economies, have been working at improving ties since Japan slapped sanctions on India in response to its 1998 nuclear tests.

Hatoyama met Indian industrialists, including Tata group chairman Ratan Tata and Reliance Industries head Mukesh Ambani, at a Mumbai hotel which was one of the targets attacked by gunmen in November 2008. He was due later to hold talks with his Indian opposite number, Manmohan Singh.