Defence Minister Rajnath Singh reached Tokyo on Wednesday to participate in the second India-Japan 2+2 ministerial dialogue.

Singh will also hold a bilateral meeting with his Japanese counterpart. “Raksha Mantri Shri @rajnathsingh reached Tokyo this evening. He will participate in the 2nd India-Japan 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue tomorrow and hold a bilateral meeting with his Japanese counterpart,” the Defence Minister’s office tweeted.

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Singh along with External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar will participate in the 2nd India-Japan 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue in Tokyo on Thursday.

In an earlier statement, the Ministry of Defence said the Japanese side will be represented by the Minister of Defence Yasukazu Hamada and Minister of Foreign Affairs Yoshimasa Hayashi.

“The 2+2 Dialogue will review bilateral cooperation across domains and chart out the way forward,” the statement said.

India and Japan are pursuing a Special Strategic and Global Partnership. This year marks 70 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

In addition to the 2+2 dialogue, Rajnath Singh will separately hold bilateral talks with his Japanese counterpart to strengthen further defence cooperation between the two countries across various sectors. He is also scheduled to call on the Prime Minister of Japan Fumio Kishida during the visit.

Defence Minister will also attend a community event organised by the Embassy of India in Tokyo and interact with the Indian diaspora in Japan.

Last week, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said Japan is one of those few countries with whom India does a 2+2 meeting.

“And the US is obviously the other one, which is the first one we started and I think we would look forward to 2+2 inter-sessional with the US here,” Bagchi said during a weekly media briefing.

The economic relationship between Japan and India has steadily expanded and deepened in recent years. The volume of trade between the two countries has increased.

Back in May, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a bilateral meeting with Japanese PM Fumio Kishida in Japan. They had a productive exchange of views on enhancing bilateral relations in various spheres as well as on some regional and global issues.

During the talks, the two leaders agreed to further enhance bilateral security and defence cooperation, including in the area of defence manufacturing.
At that time, they had concurred that the next 2+2 Foreign and Defence Ministerial Meeting may be held in Japan at the earliest.