Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will hold the third India-Japan ‘2+2″ foreign and defence industrial meeting on Tuesday. The meeting will focus on aligning their efforts to counterbalance China’s influence and enhance their respective roles in the Indo-Pacific with Japanese counterparts Yoko Kamikawa and Minoru Kihara. The dialogue is also looking to further intensify defence and security cooperation between the two countries.
The meeting in New Delhi occurs amidst increasing agreement on strategic issues, especially the agenda of ensuring a free and open Indo-Pacific in a bid to revise the joint declaration on security cooperation they signed in 2008.
The two sides are expected to discuss India’s proposal for a Quad summit, which India is set to host this year, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly next month in New York. The possibility of the summit taking place in the US in September received a significant boost this week, with reports from Tokyo suggesting that Kishida, who will step down as Prime Minister after the LDP leadership poll in September, is considering a visit to the US just before his term ends to participate in General Assembly and meet President Joe Biden.
The meeting will be the third of its kind, following the first one in 2019. Over recent years, Japan and India have been working to enhance their bilateral cooperation. The main focus of the upcoming meeting will be on strategic coordination to increase their regional influence, counter China, and address maritime issues, especially in the South China Sea. Both India and Japan have specific reasons for strengthening their relationship. India aims to diversify its arms imports through deeper cooperation with Japan, while Japan seeks to benefit from an improved defence cooperation network with other countries, according to the Chinese-state media outlet Global Times.
The first edition of the dialogue was held in India in 2019 while the second one took place in Japan in 2022. India has the ‘2+2’ ministerial format of dialogue with very few countries including the US, Australia and Russia.
Ravi Shankar
