Kyoto: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese Counterpart Shinzo Abe took some time out from their hectic schedules to feed fish in a pond near a state guest house in Kyoto on Saturday.
PM Modi and Abe participated in a special ceremony called ‘Feeding the Fish’, a ritual in Japan because of the belief that it gives strength and perseverance to the fish.
Modi is on a four-day official visit to Japan, his first major bilateral trip since taking over in May. The photo opportunity came minutes before the two leaders went in to hold talks, and witness the signing of a cultural agreement between Varanasi and Kyoto.
The Memorandum of Understanding, officially signed by Indian Ambassador to Japan Deepa Gopalan Wadhwa and Mayor of Kyoto Kadokawa Daisaku, seeks to facilitate cultural exchanges between both sides.Â
The Prime Minister also gifted two books - Swami Vivekananda and Japan and the Bhagwad Gita – to Abe.
In a statement released before he left, PM Modi had called Japan one of India’s “closest partners in political, economic, security and cultural realms”.
He added that he is confident that his visit will “write a new chapter in the annals of the relations between Asia’s two oldest democracies and take our strategic and global partnership to the next higher level.”Â