Stage is set for the Indo-Japan 2+2 Ministerial level talks later this month. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar will travel to Tokyo and will meet with their Japanese counterparts, Yoshimasa Hayashi and Nobuo Kishi respectively.

Though there is no formal confirmation about the dates for the talks, it will come at a time when the Russia-Ukraine crisis continues and the QUAD members – Japan and Australia have had bilateral meetings with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and there have been several top level visits from the US in recent weeks. And in all the meetings the focus has been to urge India to condemn Russia’s actions.

The “2+2” meeting of Foreign and Defence Ministers later this month is expected to take forward agreements on the strategic partnership and the meeting comes ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Japan either in May or June for the QUAD summit and there is a bilateral component too.

This will be an in-person QUAD meeting where the President of the US Joe Biden, Prime Minister Scott Morrison are expected to be present too.

As has been reported earlier, the Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in his bilateral in-person meeting with PM Modi had asked him to intervene with the Russian President Vladimir Putin to urgently put an end to Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.

Following Russia’s declaration of war on Ukraine, Prime Minister Modi has spoken with the Russian President three times and has called for resolving the issues through dialogue and diplomacy. At the UN, India has abstained from voting during various votes on the ongoing crisis.

Japan’s Prime Minister Kishida had minced no words to condemn Russia’s military operations against Ukraine when he had visited India.  According to him, it shook the very foundations of the international order and “must be dealt with firmly.’’  The QUAD members –Japan, the US, and Australia have announced tough sanctions against Russia.

Expected Agenda

When the two sides meet, peace and prosperity of the Indo-Pacific Region, Maritime Domain Awareness, military trade, the developments in the region, including South China Sea and the Korean Peninsula. Outer Space, Cyber Security as well as deeper defence and security cooperation are expected to be discussed by the two sides.

India & Japan Defence Cooperation

Financial Express had reported earlier that in 2018, the two countries had agreed to take the defence and security cooperation to the next level and the two sides have set up different mechanisms including the National Security Advisers’ Dialogue, the Annual Defence Ministerial Dialogue, and Defence Policy Dialogue.

The two sides have been participating in different formats of military drills including the coast guards on a regular basis. Unfortunately, after several rounds of intense discussions the amphibious aircraft US-2 has been put on a back burner.