TOKYO: Japan and India agreed on Monday to strengthen strategic ties as Asia's second and third biggest economies keep a wary eye on a rising China, and agreed to accelerate talks on the possible sale of an amphibious aircraft to India's navy.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi also agreed to speed up talks on a so-far elusive deal on nuclear energy cooperation.

The two countries "reaffirmed the importance of defense relations between Japan and India in their strategic partnership and decided to upgrade and strengthen them," Abe and Modi said in a statement after a summit in Tokyo.

They "recognized the enormous future potential for transfer and collaborative projects in defense equipment and technology," the statement said.

Modi, who brought a delegation of more than a dozen Indian tycoons on his five-day visit, courted Japan's government and business leaders, winning pledges of help for his effort to revitalize the lagging Indian economy.

"The 21st century belongs to Asia ... but how the 21st century will be depends on how strong and progressive India-Japan ties are," Modi told Japanese and Indian business executives earlier in the day.

He and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe also aim to strengthen security ties, with an eye toward an increasingly assertive China.

Sino-Japanese ties have been chilled by a row over disputed isles, feuds over the wartime past, and mutual mistrust over defense policies as China seeks a bigger regional role and Abe loosens the constraints of Japan's post-war pacificism.