Next round of India-Japan 2+2 Ministerial dialogue is expected to take place in New Delhi later this month. The dialogue is taking place ahead of the QUAD Leaders summit expected to take place later this year in India.
According to sources in the defence and security establishment, the meeting is scheduled to take place between Aug 19-21. Yōko Kamikawa, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan and Minoru Kihara, Minister of Defense of Japan are expected to be in New Delhi, they will meet their Indian counterparts: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.
Timing of the Dialogue
The Dialogue is taking place amidst the ongoing global conflicts between Russia-Ukraine, Israel – Hamas and the ongoing crisis in Bangladesh.
Agenda of the Dialogue
Though it has not been declared officially, the two sides are expected to discuss the geo-political situations and how India and Japan can deepen cooperation in defence, space, maritime and free, open, inclusive and peaceful Indo-Pacific.
The ministers from both sides are also expected to exchange views on regional issues, including the situation in the East and South China Seas, North Korea, and South Asia.
Connectivity, industrial competitiveness, digital technologies, semiconductor supply chains, clean energy, industrial competitiveness and connectivity among other issues are expected to be on the agenda.
Recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had met with the Speaker of the House of Representatives of Japan, Nukaga Fukushiro, and his delegation which had members of the Japanese Parliament as well as representatives of major Japanese companies.
The meeting focused on highlighting the strong India-Japan Special Strategic and Global Partnership and underlined the major areas of collaboration and people to people connect.
India and Japan have made progress on the current target of 5 trillion Japanese Yen investment set between India and Japan for the period 2022-27. The two sides are keen to further deepen their economic and business ties beyond 2027. And have identified new sectors including Green and Clean Energy, Electric Vehicles, among others.
Both India and Japan are keen to expand bilateral cooperation in the areas of defence equipment and technology cooperation. The two are already working in the areas of Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV)/Robotics and the Sixth India-Japan Joint Working Group on Defence Equipment and Technology Cooperation.
Space & Cyber Domain
Last April the two countries agreed to diversify their defence cooperation in new and emerging domains including Space and Cyber.