New Delhi [India], March 20 (ANI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida mentioned ongoing regional and international developments, Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra stated whereas addressing a press briefing at this time. He said that the 2 leaders spoke about how India, Japan and different like-minded nations work collectively to handle the challenges, significantly within the wider-expanse of Indo-Pacific.
Responding to a query whether or not Chinese aggression was mentioned by two leaders within the assembly, Kwatra stated, “The two leaders as I mentioned during the lunch and the meeting also spoke about the ongoing developments in our region and also globally. Naturally, as part of those discussions, they spoke about the challenges that we face in the region. How India and Japan and other like-minded countries can work together to address those challenges and not just focus on challenges, but also focus on cooperation, particularly in the wider-expanse of Indo-Pacific.””How do you take the other countries of the Indo-Pacific together? That is cut across several domains. So, for example, how do you partner within the Indo-Pacific to build resilient and trustworthy supply chains, for example? How do you come together to mitigate some of the challenges that the development template of many of these countries within the Pacific face in terms of debt burdens etc? So all that formed part of a larger, a broad platform of discussion so far in the region, sub-region specifically, and the larger field of Indo-Pacific is concerned,” he added.
While addressing the press briefing, Vinay Kwatra stated that there was no dialogue relating to the enlargement of Quad between PM Modi and his Japanese counterpart Kishida. He additional stated, “All the Quad members are very clear in their mind that Quad needs to undergo a very-very appropriate phase of consolidation before we look to anything other than Quad.” Notably, Quad is a strategic safety dialogue between Australia, India, Japan and the United States.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida known as India an “indispensable partner” and stated that Japan will increase cooperation for a Free and Open Indo-Pacific. While delivering the forty first Sapru House Lecture, Kishida careworn that you will need to lead the worldwide group within the course of cooperation fairly than confrontation and division.
“India is an indispensable partner and I believe India and Japan are in an extremely unique position in the current International relations and further in the history of the world. India is the largest democracy in the world. I have always viewed with great respect the way such a huge and diverse country as India has developed a democracy,” he stated whereas delivering the forty first Sapru House Lecture.
Kishida recalled that former Japanese PM Shinzo Abe in 2016 delivered a imaginative and prescient known as Free and Open Pacific (FOIP). He stated, “Japan will expand cooperation for FOIP. Russia’s aggression against Ukraine oblige us to face the most fundamental challenge defending peace.” He stated that Japan will collaborate intently with India in contributing to stability within the South Asian area.
“I believe that this vision nurtured by the voices of different countries which can be characterised as our Free and Open Indo-Pacific. It’s becoming more important than ever towards the goal of leading the International community in the direction of cooperation rather than division and confrontation,” Kishida stated.
Earlier within the day, Fumio Kishida held a gathering with PM Narendra Modi. Kishida arrived at this time in New Delhi for a two-day go to to India. (ANI)