New Delhi: India and Japan are planning to hold their second two plus two talks involving their foreign and defence ministers in Tokyo later this month, Japan’s public media organisation NHK said on Saturday.
“The countries are expected to discuss ways to cooperate more closely on defence,” NHK said.
Japan’s Foreign Minister MotegiToshimitsu and Defence minister Kishi Nobuo will take part in the two-way talks with their Indian counterparts, External Affairs Minister SubrahmanyamJaishankar and Defence minister Rajnath Singh.
Earlier this week, Kyodo news service said Prime Minister SugaYoshihide is also planning a visit to India from the end of April through the start of May to have talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Japan is seeking to reaffirm cooperation over its vision of a “free and open Indo-Pacific” region through the trip, government sources told Kyodo.
Suga and Modi are expected to discuss further tie-ups in outer space and cybersecurity, as well as cooperation on infrastructure projects and other economic issues.
The 2+2 talks if takes place this month will be the second such meeting between Japan and India, following a gathering in India two years ago.
India and Japan are part of the framework known as the Quad — consisting of India, Japan, the United States and Australia which has increasingly become the focus of efforts to counter China’s growing economic and military influence.
As China continues to assert itself across the region, the Japanese government is increasingly looking to India as a partner that shares basic values and can help work toward a free and open Indo-Pacific.
Japan and India signed an agreement last year to allow the Self-Defense Forces and the India’s military to provide each other logistical support and exchange supplies.
The Quad members held the Malabar joint naval exercises last November in a show of force, while agreeing in a virtual summit to “meet challenges to the rules-based maritime order” in the South and East China seas, where China has made territorial claims that are fiercely contested by its neighbours.
Suga is also slated to meet Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, and they will discuss ways to deepen security and economic cooperation as this year marks the 65th year since the normalization of their diplomatic relations.
