Japan and India agreed on Monday to strengthen strategic ties and said they would accelerate talks on defense.

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, welcoming what they called "significant progress" in the negotiations.

Modi, on his first major foreign visit since a landslide election win in May, arrived on Saturday for a five-day trip aimed at capitalizing on a personal affinity with Abe to bolster security and business ties.

Abe and Modi agreed to look into upgrading a "two-plus-two" format for security talks by bringing together their foreign and defense ministers, and directed officials to launch working level talks on defense equipment and technology cooperation.

They also agreed to hold regular maritime drills, and that Japan would continue to participate in US-India drills.

The two leaders agreed to set a target of doubling Japan's direct investment in India within five years.

"Shinzo Abe has proposed an Asia-Pacific quadrangle, an alliance including Japan, Australia, India and the US, in an effort to counterbalance China in the Asia-Pacific region," Liu Jiangyong, deputy director of the Center of International Studies at Tsinghua University, told the Global Times.

China and India share a long-disputed border while Sino-Japanese ties have been chilled by a row over disputed isles and feuds over the wartime past.

Abe is keen to expand Japan's network of security partnerships with countries such as India and Australia to cope with the challenge presented by China.