Article Posted on : - Aug 27, 2014

NEW DELHI (PTI): Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Japan, the Cabinet Committee on Security is expected to discuss on Wednesday a defence pact with that country which will help in enhancing partnership between their militaries and procurement of defence hardware.

The CCS is likely to take up the India Japan Defence Cooperation pact for discussion during the meeting, sources said here.

During Modi's trip beginning August 30, India is also planning to offer several joint defence production programmes and the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has submitted a list of proposals on which it can work with Japanese agencies.

The two countries are also expected to finalise a pact on joint production of the US-2 amphibious aircraft which India wants to use for protecting its island territories.

The deal for procuring and co-producing these aircraft has been in discussion for quite some time now and was stuck over India's demand for a weaponised version of the aircraft.

India and Japan have also decided to upgrade the level of cooperation between their militaries after the two countries recently participated in a trilateral exercise in the Pacific Ocean.

Seeking to enhance their maritime partnership, the Japanese government has decided to permanently depute a naval attache in its embassy here.