India-Japan 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue in November: Indo-Pacific and ACSA to be the Focus

Ahead of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit to India, the first-ever India-Japan 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue has been scheduled to take place on November 30 in New Delhi, where the focus of talks will be the Indo-Pacific Region and deepening bilateral relations. The two sides are expected to take further the negotiations on the Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement (ACSA) as agreed in 2018. This agreement once in place is going to help in enhancing the strategic and defence cooperation between the two countries.

The two countries are already working closely in the Maritime Security Cooperation and besides the deepening level of Ex- Malabar there have been bilateral naval exercises and as well as dialogues and training between the Coast Guards.

Both sides are also working on scheduling the Joint Working Group on Defence Equipment and Technology Cooperation (JWG-DETC) before the top leader of that country visits next month for the 14th annual India-Japan summit.

The 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue between the two countries is in addition to existing mechanisms which include the Annual Defence Ministerial Dialogue, Defence Policy Dialogue, the National Security Advisers’ Dialogue, and Staff-level Dialogue of each service.

When defence minister Rajnath Singh meets his Japanese counterpart Taro Konowas for the second time later this month, the two leaders will discuss expediting negotiations for acquisition and cross-servicing agreement.

What is ACSA?

This agreement is similar to the Logistics Agreement India has few a few countries which will allow the defence forces of both countries to provide each other supplies, including fuel and repair facilities.

In the last decade, the two countries have made tremendous progress in the defence and security relations, especially after the inking of the India-Japan Joint Declaration on Security Cooperation in 2008.

Military Technology and Joint Venture

There is a huge scope of military cooperation on defence equipment and technology and opportunities to work together on various defence platforms between the public and private sector companies. Having failed to close the US-2 amphibian aircraft deal, the focus of both sides is now on research in the Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV) and Robotics.

Prime Minister Modi and Prime Minister Abe have met already twice this year: first in Osaka on the sidelines of the G20 summit and then again in Vladivostok, Russia on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum.

Source: FE

Image Courtesy: The Tribune