The Hindu : Front Page : India, Japan to have first military talks

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Wednesday, Sep 29, 2010
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India, Japan to have first military talks

Special Correspondent

Chief of Air Staff on three-day goodwill visit to Japan
To review status of engagements, military cooperation

NEW DELHI: India and Japan will have their first army-to-army talks aimed at reviewing the present status of engagements, military cooperation and military security issues, starting here on Tuesday.

The dialogue comes at a time when Chief of Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Pradeep Naik, began a three-day goodwill visit to Japan that started on Monday. Air Chief Naik will meet his counterpart, the Chief of Japan Self Defence Force, General Kenichiro Hokazona.

Major General Koichiro Bansho, Director-General of Policy and Planning, leads a three-member delegation that will interact with his army counterparts, defence sources said. The talks will conclude on October 1.

Japan becomes the ninth country with which the Indian Army has bilateral dialogue. So far, it engages in talks with Australia, Bangladesh, France, Israel, Malaysia, Singapore, the United States and the United Kingdom.

India and Japan last year agreed on a Defence Action Plan. It aims at holding regular meetings between the defence ministers, annual official-level defence policy dialogue, annual military-to-military talks, regular reciprocal visits of the service chiefs and ground-to-ground staff talks, Navy-to-Navy staff talks, and developing an annual calendar of defence cooperation and exchanges.

In July this year, for the first time, India held talks in the 2+2 format (Foreign and Defence Secretaries from both sides) with Tokyo suggesting an increase in the levels of security dialogue. This enabled a detailed review of the security environment and positive discussions on all elements of the Action Plan.

The two sides had also decided to step up maritime cooperation by expanding the joint exercises to include the navies from both countries and stepping up cooperation in anti-piracy operations off the Gulf of Aden.

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