Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has put off his visit to Japan from tomorrow for the annual summit in view of the sudden political developments in that country.

Singh was to visit Japan for three days in the first leg of his two-nation tour from tomorrow to November 20. The second leg of visit to Cambodia for ASEAN-India and East Asia Summits will take place as scheduled from November 18.

“There have been fast-paced internal developments in Japan. Factoring these in, the Government of India has decided that we should look for new dates. So, the Prime Minister is not going from November 15 to 18,” said Gautam Bambawale, Joint Secretary (East Asia), in the External Affairs Ministry at a press conference here.

Bambawale as well as External Affairs Ministry spokesman Syed Akbaruddin said that the two countries will be working on new mutually-convenient dates for the visit.

Sources said the decision to put off the visit was taken in view of the “sudden” developments in Japan, which includes the decision of Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda to dissolve Parliament and announce new elections.

The announcement of new elections could take place on November 16, the day when Singh would have been in Tokyo and it was thought appropriate by the government here to call off the visit now, the sources said.

The Japanese Foreign Affairs ministry conveyed to the External Affairs ministry here about the latest political developments after which a decision was taken to defer the visit.

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