NEW DELHI - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit to India for summit talks with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi has been deferred, India’s foreign ministry said on Friday.

Abe was due to arrive in India on December 15 and hold talks with Modi in Guwahati, the main city of the northeastern state of Assam, which has been wracked by protests this week over a divisive new citizenship law.

Raveesh Kumar, a spokesman for India’s foreign ministry, said in a tweet that “both sides have decided to defer the visit to a mutually convenient date in the near future.”