At a meeting of Defence Ministers, no decision was taken on joint exercises in Indian Ocean in view of China’s growing maritime assertivenessIndia and Japan resolved to continue their defence consultation and cooperation, including in maritime security, at a meeting of their Defence Ministers A.K. Antony and Itsunori Onodera on Monday.
Mr. Onodera, who began his four-day visit to India on Sunday, called on Mr. Antony as a follow-up to the India-Japan Defence Ministerial Meeting held in November 2011. The Defence Ministry said the Ministers discussed regional and global security challenges, as well as defence cooperation and exchanges between the two countries.
Mr. Onodera briefed the Indian delegation of Japan’s National Security Strategy and National Defence Program Guidelines, which were adopted in December last.
When Mr. Onodera’s visit was announced in late December, some Japanese news agencies reported, citing government sources, that he “plans to promote talks to export Japan’s US-2 amphibious aircraft used by the Maritime Self-Defence Force (MSDF) to India, prior to the scheduled visit to the country by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in late January.” However, sources here said that while Japan had been pitching for the sale of these aircraft as a special case, for the moment it did not figure on India’s list of priorities.
According to the reports from Japan, the two sides were “expected to regularise joint training exercises between the MSDF and the Indian Navy in the Indian Ocean so they can protect sea-lanes in the wake of the growing maritime assertiveness of China.” But, again, the Defence Ministry remained silent on the issue; sources could only say India did not view the relations from the prism of threat because India, Japan and China together had been conducting anti-piracy exercises in the Gulf of Aden.