Rajnath Singh, S Jaishankar To Visit Japan For 2+2 Dialogue, To Review Indo-Pacific Development

In the upcoming meet, both sides are expected to deliberate on ways to strengthen bilateral cooperation in the areas of defence and security apart from reviewing developments in the Indo-Pacific

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, S Jaishankar To Visit Japan

Source : ANI

New Delhi: With an aim to strengthen bilateral ties with Japan, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will visit the island nation this week to attend '2+2' dialogue. The two countries will explore new initiatives to strengthen the bilateral partnership, said the ministry of external affairs (MEA) on Tuesday.

Both the ministers will visit Japan to attend the second India-Japan 2+2 Ministerial Meeting to be held from September 7 -10, according to the MEA. "During the visit, the ministers will also hold the Defence Ministerial Meeting and Foreign Ministers' Strategic Dialogue with their counterparts, Defence Minister Yasukazu Hamada and Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi respectively," said the statement from MEA.

The MEA said India-Japan's special strategic and global partnership is based on shared values of democracy, freedom and respect for rule of law. Defence minister, who is on a three-day visit to Mongolia from Monday, will go to Japan after concluding the trip to the East Asian country.

Significance of '2+2'  dialogue

The '2+2' dialogue will be held more than five months after Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was in India for the annual India-Japan summit. An investment target of five trillion Yen (Rs 3,20,000 crore) in India over the next five years was announced at the time of Kishida's visit.

In the upcoming meet, both sides are expected to deliberate on ways to strengthen bilateral cooperation in the areas of defence and security apart from reviewing developments in the Indo-Pacific.

Conceptualised in 2019, the '2+2' dialogue with Japan aims to deepen bilateral security and defence cooperation and ensure greater depth to the special strategic and global partnership between the two countries.

Such a ministerial format of dialogue takes place with other countries, including the US, Japan, Australia and Russia.

India has been consolidating ties with its key partners on the back of the geo-political turmoil mostly triggered by the Ukraine crisis along with China's aggressive posturing in the Indo-Pacific and escalating conflict between Beijing and Taipei in the Taiwan Strait.

(With inputs from PTI)