First India-Japan 2+2 Foreign and Defence Ministerial Meeting held in New Delhi

India and Japan held their first ever Foreign and Defence Ministerial Dialogue (2+2) in New Delhi. During the meet the two sides discussed about boosting defence and security ties besides other issues of mutual interest. This India-Japan ministerial meeting comes ahead of annual summit of two prime ministers scheduled to be held in Guwahati, Assam in December 2019. India has a similar ‘ministerial level 2+2’ dialogue with the USA as well.

Highlights: India-Japan 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue

Partcipants: Indian delegation was led by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Foreign Minister S Jaishankar while Japanese side was led by Japan’s Foreign Affairs Minister Toshimitsu Motegi and Defence Minister Taro Kono.

The 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue is an upgrade of meeting between foriegn and defence secretaries of two countries, the first round of which took place in 2010. This upgradation was followed after an agreement was reached between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during 13th India-Japan Annual Summit held in Japan in October 2018.

Dialogue provided an opportunity for two countries to review the status of as well as exchange further views on strengthening defence and security cooperation between India and Japan so as to provide greater depth to ‘India-Japan Special Strategic and Global Partnership’.

Both sides also exchanged their views on situation regarding Indo-Pacific region as well as their respective efforts under India’s ‘Act East Policy’ and Japan’s ‘Free and Open Indo-Pacific Vision’ for achieving their shared objective of progress, peace prosperity, to realise a better future for people of two countries and region.

Month: Current Affairs - December, 2019