Modi-Abe friendship: Here is how foreign media see it

New Delhi, Sept 3: Prime Minister

concluded his five-day

visit and headed back home today. Here is what foreign media said about the trip.

Author Pankaj Mishra wrote in Bloomberg that the visit was 'India's foolish crush on Japan'. "But can Modi's old-fashioned reverence for all things Japanese, from the tea ceremony to nuclear plants, produce the right blueprint for India's future?", asks Mishra in his article. He says that India's crush on Japan is for its love for traditional values. "Since the 19th century, Hindu nationalists have venerated Japan as the paradigmatic Asian society that preserves its traditional virtues while also developing industrial and military strength and inculcating patriotism among its citizens", he writes.

Also, Mishra points out sarcastically - "Modi has not evolved a "Look East" policy just because U.K. and U.S. officials refused to meet with him and the U.S. denied him a visa after communal riots on his watch as chief minister of the state of Gujarat claimed more than 1,000 lives".

The Dailymail UK looks at the visit as a possible "beginning of a new era in international relations in the region." "A strategic partnership will enable both countries to address larger challenges to national and regional security", the article says.

Quartz sees the warmth that Japan showered on Modi as a result of the country's strenuous relationship with China. "Abe sees India as a potential ally in its prickly relationship with its powerful neighbor", says the article. However, Modi's interest in Japan is not for geo-political reasons, observes the article. "For Narendra Modi, however, the Japan visit is less about geo-politics and Asian security, and more about geo-commerce and investment", it says.

The Wall Street Journal says Modi, who is under pressure to build India into an economic superpower, has found a strong ally in Abe. "Modi is using his five-day visit to Japan to try to revive interest in investing in his country", the article says.

The Christian Monitor writes, "Even by Japan's standards of hospitality, it is hard to recall a time in recent years when the visit of a foreign leader has been so eagerly awaited". The article observes the growing warmth between the two countries in the background of Japan's strained relations with China.

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