Japan sees India as an “indispensable” partner in the Indo-Pacific and is keen to develop deeper defence cooperation to ensure maritime security in the region, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on September 10.
“Our Self-Defence Forces and the Indian Armed Forces have already conducted joint exercises this year between all services of land, sea and air. Our cooperative relationship is deepening steadily,” Mr. Kishida said to a question from The Hindu on India’s role in his new Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP) strategy.
“For example, as we did last year, our maritime Self-Defence Forces and the Indian Navy engaged in joint exercises this July and the Japan-Australia-India-U.S. Quad joint drill Malabar was also held on a continuous basis. So, going forward, to ensure the Indo-Pacific will not be a region that will be decided by force, and will be a region that values freedom and rule of law, we will continue active defence cooperation and exchanges with India.”
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Mr. Kishida stressed that Japan’s FOIP was “an inclusive and open concept and has no specific country in mind.”
At the same time, he described “an increasingly harsh security environment in the region” and said Japan was “opposed to unilateral changes to the status quo in East and South China Seas”, and also “firmly condemned North Korean’s missile activities.”
“The FOIP that Japan is promoting is a concept to uphold and reinforce a free and open international order based on rule of law in the Indo-Pacific region. And by doing so we aim to ensure peace and stability and prosperity in the entire region and ultimately across the world. That is the vision.”
Mr. Kishida had announced his new FOIP plan during a visit to India in March this year. “As a concrete measure we announced the reinforcement of our support to maritime law enforcement capabilities and for maritime security,” he said. “In particular, India is an indispensable partner to realise a FOIP.”
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Russian invasion has ‘shaken’ G-20
Mr. Kishida defended the G-20 New Delhi Declaration as a “meaningful achievement” when asked about the absence of a reference to Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, which was mentioned in last year’s Bali Declaration, but warned it was “shaking the foundation” of the G-20.
“Today as the world faces complex crises, collaboration at G-20 as premier forum for economic cooperation is becoming increasingly important. Russia’s aggression of Ukraine is shaking the very foundation of cooperation at G-20. It could shake the basis of cooperation at G-20. Further, it is causing enormous impact to the world economy through such factors such as protracted rise of food and energy prices,” he said.
At the same time, he said the fact that the declaration “was adopted along with support of Russia is very meaningful”. “There are various comments such as this being a weak declaration without explicit condemnation,” he said. “Even in comparison to the Bali Declaration… we have applied new expressions… for example, the call for refraining from use or threat of use of force to seek territorial acquisition….. On Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, throughout the meetings Japan has pressed for immediate withdrawal of Russian troops and realisation of a just, durable peace in Ukraine. We underscored our position that Russia’s nuclear threat, let alone use of nuclear weapons is absolutely unacceptable. We also highlighted the importance of assistance by the global community to vulnerable populations under conflict,” he added, which was mentioned in the declaration.
