Article Posted on : - Oct 27, 2009

Indian Navy's guided-missile destroyer INS Ranvir leads the Arleigh-Burke class destroyer USS Fitzgerald and Japan's Self-Defence Force destroyer JDS Kurama during Exercise Malabar 2009, an annual exercise led by the Indian Navy. Image credit: US Navy

NEW DELHI, (PTI): As part of efforts to strengthen Indo-Japanese security and defence cooperation, Defence Minister A K Antony will visit Tokyo next month.

During his two-day visit in the second week of November, Antony will hold meetings with the Japanese political and military leadership and discuss further enhancement of security and defence relations between the two sides, Defence Ministry officials said.

The visit has been postponed twice and rescheduled for the third time, they said.

Defence and security ties between India and Japan have increased in the recent past and the two sides have also held war games. The Japanese Maritime Self Defence Force also participated in a trilateral exercise with India and US early this year.

In October last year, the two countries had signed a pact on security cooperation aimed at intensifying interaction between their militaries and expanding the scope of strategic dialogue between them.