India & Japan Hold Talks To Expand Strategic Partnership

On March 20, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held talks with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to expand India-Japan strategic partnership. The leaders discussed enhancing cooperation in areas of defence and security, trade and investment, and high technologies, with a focus on creating a peaceful, stable, and prosperous post-Covid world. 

Kishida arrived in Delhi for a 27-hour visit to ramp up bilateral ties and explore convergence between India's presidency of G20 and Japan's presidency of the G7 to address various global problems. Kishida said that he intended to engage in an exchange of views with Prime Minister Modi on what role Japan and India should play within the international community. 

He also announced a new plan for a Free and Open Indo-Pacific, in which he would lay out his thinking regarding the role that a Free and Open Indo-Pacific would play at this historic turning point. The evolving situation in the Indo-Pacific against the backdrop of China's rising military assertiveness is also likely to figure in wide-ranging talks between Modi and Kishida. During his visit to India in March last year, Kishida announced an investment target of five trillion Yen (₹3,20,000 crore) in India over the next five years.