The Wire Staff 
New Delhi: India and Japan’s foreign and defence ministers met for their ‘2+2’ meeting in Delhi on Tuesday (August 20), where both sides discussed cooperation on the security front and their vision of a “free and open Indo-Pacific”.
Crucially, the two sides agreed to revise their 2008 Joint Declaration on Security Cooperation to address current security challenges. A Japanese spokesperson said after the meeting that both the sides also agreed to start discussions for an agreement that will allow Japanese naval ships to undergo repair work in India.
External affairs minister S. Jaishankar and defence minister Rajnath Singh met their Japanese counterparts Yoko Kamikawa and Minoru Kihara for the third such meeting between the two sides since the inaugural edition in 2019.
Both sides share common concerns about China’s role in the Indian Ocean and a joint statement on Tuesday said they envisioned a “free and open Indo-Pacific that is inclusive, peaceful, prosperous and resilient as part of the rules-based international order.”
“A free, open and rules-based Indo-Pacific is the top priority for both our countries,” Jaishankar said in his press statement.
He also said: “As we both step forward into a more volatile and unpredictable world, there is a need for reliable partners with whom there are substantial convergences.”
The joint statement also said the four ministers noted that various dialogues had taken place between the two sides to promote bilateral security cooperation since the second ‘2+2’ meeting in 2022.
They “appreciated the progress made for the transfer of Unified Complex Radio Antenna…and related technologies and early signing of related arrangements”, the statement said, referring to a stealth antenna system meant for naval ships.
If the technology is transferred to India, it will mark the first export case under a defence technology and equipment agreement signed between it and Japan in 2015, the Kyodo News wire agency noted.
An official told the Times of India that India was “keen on inducting at least a limited number of such systems and technology transfer to make its warships more stealthy”.
The ministers “concurred on deepening” cooperation in the space and cyber fields and “reaffirmed the importance of multilateral defence cooperation and exchanges in the Indo-Pacific region,” the joint statement read.
It also said they “valued their cooperation in [the] Quad”, the colloquial term for the informal grouping of India, Japan, the US and Australia that resumed activity in 2017 with the US championing its Indo-Pacific strategy.
The statement added that they “unequivocally condemned terrorism and violent extremism in all its forms and manifestations, including cross-border terrorism” and called for the perpetrators of the November 26, 2011 Mumbai terror attacks to justice.
Jaishankar’s press statement said that India would open a new consulate in Japan’s Fukuoka city.