Japan Preparing For '2+2 Talks' With India Next Month

Japan will begin preparations to hold ‘two-plus-two’ talks with India between its foreign and defence ministries and their Indian counterparts by early September, Nikkei reported on Thursday.

The report mentioned that preparations were on to host the diplomatic level talks in capital city Tokyo.

It may be noted that ‘two-plus-two’ talks between the two countries had happened only once before, in 2019.

That was when India and Japan had adopted a joint statement saying that they will conduct coordinated military drills, the report from Nikkei added.

Several key issues including bilateral cooperation and the Indo-Pacific situation among others are thought to be on the agenda for discussion.

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The Indian delegation of Union defence minister Rajnath Singh and foreign minister S Jaishankar will be visiting Tokyo next month to hold talks with Japan's foreign minister Yoshimasa Hayashi and defence minister Yasukazu Hamada.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is reportedly also likely to travel to Japan to attend the funeral of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, however, no official confirmation in the matter has been.

Abe, who had been shot at a political campaign event on July 8 in Japan's Nara, succumbed later. He was a close friend of PM Modi and his funeral will take place on September 27, three weeks after the talks.

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