New Delhi [India], August 26 (ANI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi can be on a two-day go to to Japan from August 29 throughout which he’ll participate within the Annual Summit together with his Japanese counterpart Shigeru Ishiba with the 2 leaders slated to assessment bilateral ties which have expanded in scope and ambition during the last decade and embrace commerce and funding, protection and safety, science and know-how, infrastructure and mobility and cultural engagement.
At a particular media briefing on PM Modi’s go to to Japan and later to China for the SCO Summit, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri stated that defence and security-related cooperation has emerged as an vital pillar of cooperation between India and Japan.
‘This has certainly emerged as an vital pillar of cooperation between the 2 nations lately. There was a gathering between the protection ministers of the 2 nations that was held only recently in May of this 12 months, the place the 2 sides had been capable of assessment an entire host of points, operational engagements between the 2 sides. But extra importantly, defence gear and know-how collaboration, which is a crucial a part of the general defence and safety engagement between the 2 sides,’ he stated.
‘I believe there was some curiosity in particular platforms. The two nations are already engaged on co-developing the Unified Complex Radio Antenna, the UNICORN mission, which is a standard radar mast to be used by Indian Navy platforms. A memorandum of implementation for this specific mission was signed in November 2024. The Indian Navy, and the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force are additionally exploring potential cooperation within the space of ship upkeep in India,’ he added.
The Foreign Secretary stated discussions happening plenty of different points between the designated businesses of the 2 sides, DRDO in India and ATLA in Japan.
‘These discussions are common and the agenda is continually being refreshed, they usually stay engaged on it,’ he stated.
Misri stated India and Japan are two nations that share values, belief, and strategic outlook on a number of points.
‘They are two of Asia’s main democracies and amongst the highest 5 world economies,’ Misri stated. It can be Prime Minister Modi’s first Annual Summit with Prime Minister Ishiba and it’ll even be his first standalone go to to Japan in practically seven years.
‘This can be Prime Minister’s eighth go to to Japan since he took workplace in 2014, and displays the very excessive precedence that this specific relationship has in our overseas relations,’ Misri stated.
Speaking on the collaboration within the area area, Misri highlighted the collaboration between the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the Japanese Space Agency on the Lunar Polar Exploration Mission (LUPEX), pursued alongside India’s Chandrayaan-5 mission.
‘The ISRO and the Japanese Space Agency are working collectively on one thing referred to as LUPEX, which is the Lunar Polar Exploration Mission. And that is being pursued in tandem with India’s Chandrayaan-5 mission. This is an space of some significance additionally as a result of it affords an avenue for Indian area startups to really deploy their capabilities and their capacities on this vital space,’ Misri acknowledged.
Misri additionally underscored the importance of the Quad framework, comprising India, Japan, Australia, and the US, as a key platform for selling a free, open, and inclusive Indo-Pacific.
‘The Quad is certainly an vital platform for engaged on and selling peace, stability, prosperity, and growth within the Indo-Pacific area,’ he stated.
‘In newer years, its agenda has expanded to tackle problems with sensible cooperation, if I can name it that, and well being safety. It covers crucial and rising applied sciences. There’s an initiative with regard to crucial minerals that has been mentioned not too long ago. Overall, with regard to tips on how to make provide chains extra resilient, and in addition infrastructure growth. So, these are all points which are a precedence, each for India and for Japan. Both our nations connect excessive worth to this discussion board and to this partnership,’ Misri added.
The annual summit between India and Japan represents the very best degree dialogue mechanism that exists between the 2 nations, and it drives the agenda of the India-Japan particular strategic and international partnership.
Misri stated India and Japan share values, belief, and strategic outlook on a number of points.
He stated the annual summit will even be a possibility to launch a number of new initiatives in an effort to construct larger resilience within the relationship, and to answer rising alternatives and challenges.
The Foreign Secretary stated one of many options of the annual summit between India and Japan is an engagement between the 2 leaders exterior the capital.
‘On this event as nicely, the programme features a go to exterior Tokyo, which is once more going to be one thing to look ahead to for the 2 leaders. The programme additionally contains interactions of the Prime Minister with a number of different political leaders from Japan, as additionally with pals of India,’ he stated.
‘The Prime Minister will even take part in a enterprise leaders’ discussion board with captains of Japanese and Indian business. These interactions are aimed toward deepening the crucial commerce, funding and know-how relationship between the 2 nations,’ he added.
Misri stated there was lately an intensification of the engagement between Indian states and Japanese prefectures, and an engagement centered on this specific facet has additionally been deliberate for through the go to.
‘Overall, the go to will consolidate our long-standing friendship. It will open recent avenues of cooperation, and reaffirm our shared dedication to peace, prosperity and stability, each for the 2 nations in addition to in our shared Indo-Pacific area and past,’ he stated.
From Japan, PM Modi will go to Tianjin, China for the twenty fifth assembly of the Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Council, the SCO, on August 31 and September 1 on the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Briefing in regards to the go to, Tanmaya Lal, Secretary (West), MEA, stated the SCO was established with the first purpose of countering three evils of terrorism, separatism, and extremism, which proceed to stay a problem.
‘Today, as a regional platform, there’s a broader vary of sectors of cooperation among the many SCO members,’ he stated.
The SCO includes 10 members. In addition to India, they embrace Belarus, China, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. There are plenty of dialogue companions and observers additionally.
India has been a member of the SCO since 2017, and earlier it was an observer since 2005. During the interval of its membership, India has held the chair of the SCO Council of Heads of Government in 2020 and of the SCO Council of Heads of State throughout 2022-2023. India engages actively with varied institutional processes and mechanisms of the SCO, and participates within the ministerial conferences and different dialogue codecs.
Prime Minister Modi has participated in varied earlier SCO summits in 2018 in Qingdao; 2019 in Bishkek; 2020 in Moscow in digital format; 2021 in Dushanbe in digital format; 2022 in Tashkent; 2023 in New Delhi in digital format; and in 2024, the Astana Summit, External Affairs Minister had represented the Prime Minister.
The theme of the twenty third SCO Summit, which was chaired by Prime Minister Modi, was in the direction of a ‘SECURE’ SCO, and right here the SECURE stands for Security, Economy and Trade, Connectivity, Unity, Respect for Sovereignty and Territorial Integrity, and Environment. So this offers an thought of the vary of points which are of precedence for India within the SCO.
Tanmaya Lal stated that in India’s presidency in 2023, the SCO had adopted a Joint Statement on cooperation on countering radicalization resulting in separatism, extremism, and terrorism. During the presidency, India had additionally centered on a really broad primarily based, and numerous areas of cooperation which are of curiosity to SCO members. These sensible areas of cooperation embrace, for example, startups and innovation, conventional drugs, youth empowerment, digital inclusion and shared Buddhist heritage.
He stated safety cooperation stays one of many vital areas of focus for India, and India had chaired the SCO RATS council throughout 2021-2022.
In May this 12 months, the ICWA had hosted a twentieth SCO discussion board in New Delhi on the theme SECURE SCO. In current months, India has participated on the ministerial and senior ranges in a number of ongoing processes of the SCO.
He stated programme components for the upcoming twenty fifth SCO summit in Tianjin embrace a welcome banquet dinner within the night of August 31, and the primary summit can be held on the subsequent day.
Prime Minister is prone to maintain some bilateral conferences on the sidelines of the SCO summit. (ANI)