Article Posted on : - Apr 06, 2023

NEW DELHI (PTI): Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh today said that India shares Japan's vision for a free, open and rules-based Indo-Pacific and stressed that both the countries must continue to expand the scope of their bilateral cooperation.

Singh conveyed this to Japan's Vice Minister of Defence for International Affairs Oka Masami during a meeting.

Oka is currently on a visit to India primarily to attend the seventh Defence Policy Dialogue.

The dialogue took place on Wednesday over two weeks after Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida visited India during which he described the country as an "indispensable partner" of Japan to achieve the ambitious goal of peace, prosperity and stability in the Indo-Pacific region.

In the Defence Policy Dialogue, India and Japan agreed to diversify their defence cooperation in new and emerging domains like space and cyber as part of an aim to consolidate the overall strategic engagement.

In the meeting with Singh, Oka reiterated Japan's keenness to further enhance bilateral defence cooperation, including collaboration in defence equipment and technology sector, the defence ministry said.

"Rajnath Singh conveyed that India shares Japan's vision for a free, open, secure and rules-based Indo-Pacific and stressed that both the countries must continue to expand the scope of their bilateral cooperation," it said.

Oka was also accompanied by Ambassador of Japan to India Suzuki Hiroshi, who thanked Singh for the impetus provided by his "strong and positive" leadership towards strengthening the bilateral defence ties, the ministry said.