In a major development, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who held bilateral talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi here on Monday, announced a new Indo-Pacific plan for a free and open Indo-Pacific aimed at countering China’s growing assertiveness in the region. The visiting Japanese PM Kishida announced the plan after a comprehensive discussion on it with PM Modi.
Undeniably, China’s territorial claims are a common challenge for both India and Japan. Therefore, the two leaders discussed ways on how to expand strategic ties to deal with the security challenges resulting from China’s belligerence and aggressive behaviour in the Indo-Pacific.
After the talks with PM Modi on shared concerns about China, Kishida called India vital to ensuring a free and open Indo-Pacific. The Japanese premier also laid out the plans to promote an open and free Indo-Pacific. For this, he has promised the investment worth billions of dollars to help economies across the region “in everything from industry to disaster prevention”. Kishida, who is on a two-day trip to India, said “he hopes to promote a vision of free and open Indo-Pacific”, a Tokyo-led initiative for greater security and economic cooperation that is aimed at tackling Beijing’s growing assertiveness.
It includes Japan’s assistance to emerging economies, support for maritime security, a provision of coast guard patrol boats and equipment and other infrastructure cooperation. He pledged $75 billion to the region by 2030 via private investment and yen loans and by ramping up aid through official governmental assistance and grants.
After holding wide-ranging talks with his Japanese counterpart, PM Modi told media persons, “India-Japan global partnership is based on shared democratic values and respect for the value of law and promotes peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific.”
Sources told The Daily Guardian that the two prime ministers explored ways to deal with regional security challenges amidst the increasing assertiveness of China. The two leaders also discussed the various issues to be included in the agenda during the Quad Summit in Australia. However, no discussion on expanding Quad took place.
They also focussed significantly on boosting cooperation in the areas of clean energy, semiconductors and co-development of military hardware. PM Modi and Kishida vowed to work together to deal with pressing global challenges under India’s presidency of the G-20 and Japan’s chairship of the G7 grouping, sources said.
The Japanese Prime Minister also formally invited PM Modi to the G7 summit which will take place in Hiroshima in May. The two leaders discussed the agendas of the G20 and G7 in detail. The visiting Japanese PM said that he had a good discussion with PM Modi and that he had conveyed his country’s commitment to strongly uphold the international order based on the rule of law. PM Modi also echoed Kishida as he said the ties between India and Japan were not only beneficial for the two countries, but also important for the stability of the Indo-Pacific region.
Kishida also welcomed the “concrete progress” in the security cooperation. He mentioned the successful conduct of the first fighter jet exercise, Veer Guardian, in January in Japan. This was followed by the 4th Dharma Guardian army exercise, which was conducted for the first time in Japan.
Modi said the two sides reviewed progress in bilateral relations especially in areas of defence, digital technology, trade and investment and health. He said both sides also discussed the importance of reliable supply chains for semiconductors and other critical technologies.
Kishida said that he raised the issue of Russia’s aggression in Ukraine during his meeting with PM Modi. While delivering the 41st Sapru House lecture, Kishida said, “I reiterate that Japan strongly condemns Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and will never recognise it.” “Prime Minister Modi too expressed to President Putin that today is not the era of war. Japan opposes any unilateral changes to the status quo by force anywhere in the world,” the Japan PM added.
In another significant development, India and Japan also signed two documents on the renewal of a memorandum of cooperation on the Japanese language and exchange of notes on a 300 billion Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) loan for Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train.
Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra said, “There were two documents signed on the sidelines- Renewal of MOC (Memorandum of Cooperation) in the Japanese language, essentially focussing on higher level language learning and second agreement was Exchange of notes on JICA loan for 300 billion on Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed railway project.”