India and Japan held talks on Friday to boost their military cooperation, including operations between their militaries. During the 11th ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting-Plus held in Vientiane, Laos, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh held a bilateral with his counterpart, General Nakatani of Japan. The dialogues are taken with reference to the exchange of materials and services, bilateral and multilateral drills and emulation, and the identification of future potential cooperation fields, but especially in terms of air operations.
It revealed that the two leaders highlighted the defence industry and technology partnership, specifically to increase cooperation in co-production and co-development in the defence manufacturing ecosystem. India and Japan agreed in December 2020 on the acquisition of supplies and services by the Indian and Japanese self-defence forces in response to activities related to training, peacekeeping, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations, as well as other activities under bilateral cooperation.
Besides a briefing with Nakatani, Singh also had a session with the Philippines’ Defence Minister Gilberto Teodoro, in which the sides agreed on further enhancing cooperation in the fight against terrorism, space, maritime, and defence industries. The meeting also pointed to the exchange of subject matter experts as a way to strengthen cooperation.
The ASEAN member countries comprise the ADMM-Plus bloc together with eight other countries that are dialogue partners of the ASEAN, such as India, China, Japan, Russia, and the United States. The engagements in Laos came after Singh‘s talks with US Defence Secretary Lloyd J. Austin, where the leaders highlighted new endeavours in the India-US defence relations based on operation, industry and innovation.
This week, Singh had a chance to speak with the Chinese Defence Minister, Admiral Dong Jun. He noted that more attention should be paid to the further reduction of tensions in the Ladakh region, especially in view of the recent withdrawal of troops in the Depsang and Demchok areas; at the same time, stress was made regarding the link between the issues of borders and other aspects of bilateral relations. Singh underlined India’s principles of a rule-based order for peace in the Indo-Pacific region and called for compromising over issues.
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