Pranab to visit Japan for talks

New Delhi: With nuclear diplomacy at the top of his agenda, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee will go to Japan on a two-day visit starting March 22 to hold strategic dialogue with his counterpart Taro Aso.

Mukherjee will also call on Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the external affairs ministry said on Thursday night while announcing the minister's visit to Tokyo.

Mukherjee and Aso will launch the first strategic dialogue at the foreign ministers level on March 22 that was agreed upon during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Tokyo in December last year.

The visit, Mukherjee's first after he became external affairs minister in 2006, underlines burgeoning economic and strategic ties between the two Asian powers.