India and Japan agreed on Wednesday to expand their defense cooperation into new areas including space and cyber, with the goal of making their overall strategic relationship stronger.
At the sixth meeting of the India-Japan Defense Policy Dialogue, which took place in Delhi, it was decided to make defense ties even stronger.
During the negotiations, the Indian side asked Japanese defense companies to look into investing in India as part of the “Make in India” push.
The defense talk happened more than two weeks after Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s trip to India, when he called the country a “indispensable partner” for Japan’s goal of peace, prosperity, and stability in the Indo-Pacific region.
Defense Secretary Giridhar Aramane and Oka Masami, who is Japan’s Vice Minister of Defense for International Affairs, were in charge of the talks.
“A lot of different things were talked about at the meeting, like service-level exercises and engagements, regional security issues, and working together on defense equipment and technology,” the defense ministry stated.
It added that the Japanese vice minister gave updates on their National Security Strategy and National Defense Strategy, which were just released.
The ministry claimed that Aramane stressed that the defense industry of both countries should endeavor to work together more.
“He also asked Japanese defense companies to look into investing in India as part of the “Make in India” program. Both sides decided to work together in more areas, such as cyber and defense space. This was said in a statement.
Both sides also liked how staff talks and exercises helped the services work together more.
“They liked that the first “Veer Guardian” fighter exercise between the Indian Air Force and the Japanese Air Self Defense Force was held in Japan in January of this year,” the ministry stated.
The Defense Policy Dialogue is a formal way for India and Japan to talk about how they might work together on defense.
