New Delhi:
Defense Minister Rajnath Singh and Foreign Minister S Jaishankar will visit Tokyo in mid-April to hold the next edition of the ‘2+2’ dialogue with their Japanese counterparts, which will address a range of key issues, including potential implications of the crisis in Ukraine for the Indo-Pacific, people familiar with the development said on Monday.
Jaishankar and Singh are planning to travel to Tokyo after visiting the US.
Both ministers are visiting the US to hold the ‘2+2’ Secretary of State and Defense ministerial talks in Washington on April 11 with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, the people said.
Both Japan and the US are India’s partners in the Quadrilateral Coalition and the impact of the Ukraine crisis on the Indo-Pacific is likely to factor into talks in both Washington and Tokyo.
Singh is likely to be in the US from April 10-13, the people said.
Mr Singh and Mr Jaishankar’s planned visit to Tokyo comes less than a month after Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida visited India for the annual India-Japan summit.
At the New Delhi summit, Kishida announced an investment target of five trillion yen (Rs 3.20,000 crore) in India over the next five years.
In the 2+2 dialogue, both sides are expected to discuss ways to further expand bilateral defense and security cooperation, in addition to taking stock of developments in the Indo-Pacific, the said people.
The Japanese delegation is led by Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi and Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi.
The ‘2+2’ dialogue with Japan was launched in 2019 to further deepen bilateral security and defense cooperation and deepen the special strategic and global partnership between the two countries.
India has the ‘2+2’ ministerial dialogue format with very few countries, including the US, Japan, Australia and Russia.
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