Japan And India To Hold 2+2 Meeting
The governments of Japan and India are arranging a meeting of their foreign and defense ministers in Tokyo later this month.
Japan's foreign minister Motegi Toshimitsu and defense minister Kishi Nobuo are due to attend. From India, External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and defense minister Rajnath Singh will take part.
It will be the second two-plus-two meeting between Japan and India, following a gathering in India two years ago. The countries are expected to discuss ways to cooperate more closely on defense. Japan and India signed an agreement last year to allow the Self-Defense Forces and the Indian military to provide each other with food and fuel.
Japan's Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide is also making arrangements to visit India and the Philippines during the holiday period running from the end of April through the start of May.
As China continues to assert itself across the region, the Japanese government is increasingly looking to India as an ally that shares basic values and can help work toward a free and open Indo-Pacific.
The Japanese government hopes to demonstrate the close relationship between the countries through the two-plus-two meeting and Prime Minister Suga's visit to India.