General Upendra Dwivedi has made his first official visit to Japan after taking charge as the chief of Indian Army. The trip is a five-day visit starting October 14.
The visit aims at strengthening mutual understanding, exchanging views on aspects of common interest and strengthening bilateral defence cooperation between the two nations.
The visit is believed to be strategically important as both India and Japan are crucial players in the Indo-Pacific region. Also, given the current global environment, India-Japan defence partnership is essential to ensuring a free, open, inclusive, and prosperous Indo-Pacific region. The same has also been stressed upon by the governments of both the countries openly.
Recently the Indian Navy and Japanese Navy also conducted a joint naval exercise in the Bay of Bengal. The event was part of the Malabar Exercise and had QUAD nations also participating, including – the United States, Japan, and Australia.
Other than this, just two months ago, Japan’s foreign minister Yoko Kamikawa and the defence minister Kihara Minoru had visited India for the 2+2 Dialogue, where also one of the key focuses was on the Indo-Pacific region.
There have been more occasions where India and Japan have attempted to improve their coordination on the defence front. Last year, India even participated in a bilateral air combat exercise called Veer Guardian in Japan, which was the first air combat exercise between the two nations. Further, in February this year, India and Japan initiated a two-week military exercise in Rajasthan’s Mahajan to foster deeper cooperation in order to be able to combat the modern security challenges together.
Beyond defence front, India and Japan have also seen increased collaboration and engagement in the field of science, technology and innovation.
On November 2, 2021, the Second Meeting of the Japan-India Space Dialogue was held. The dialogue provided an opportunity to exchange information on the space policy of each country and to hold discussions on space security, bilateral cooperation between JAXA and ISRO, their space industries, global navigation satellite systems, space situational awareness (SSA), space-related rules and norms, and other areas of mutual interest.
Furthermore, there have been several ministerial level visits from India to Japan and vice versa in connection with the presidencies of the G20 and G7, held by India and Japan, respectively.
