NEW DELHI: Japanese Prime Minister Fumi Kishida’s one-day visit to India will provide an opportunity for both countries to discuss how the G20 and G7 can work together to address critical global issues, including food and health security, energy transitions and economic security, sources said ahead of his arrival. at Monday. India and Japan currently chair the G20 and G7, respectively.
Kishida will be hoping to more than make up for his Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi’s absence from the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in India earlier this month.
While the issue of Ukraine will again be high on Kishida’s agenda for his meeting with his counterpart Narendra Modi, the focus will also be on strengthening security and defense cooperation and working towards a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific.
On Saturday, Kishida hosted German Chancellor Olaf Scholz for a bilateral summit where both leaders welcomed the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin. Both India and the US are not members of the Court, and the ICC order is unlikely to stand in the way of Putin’s participation in the G20 and SCO summits that India will host later this year.
“Cooperation in the field of defense and security has become one of the most important pillars of our special strategic and global partnership and an important factor in ensuring peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region,” the source said. Kishida is expected to talk about ways to further expand Japan’s free and open Indo-Pacific policy. “The successful conduct of the first ‘Veer Guardian’ fighter jet exercise in January 2023 in Japan between our two countries was a milestone,” the official added.
Kishida will be hoping to more than make up for his Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi’s absence from the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in India earlier this month.
While the issue of Ukraine will again be high on Kishida’s agenda for his meeting with his counterpart Narendra Modi, the focus will also be on strengthening security and defense cooperation and working towards a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific.
On Saturday, Kishida hosted German Chancellor Olaf Scholz for a bilateral summit where both leaders welcomed the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin. Both India and the US are not members of the Court, and the ICC order is unlikely to stand in the way of Putin’s participation in the G20 and SCO summits that India will host later this year.
“Cooperation in the field of defense and security has become one of the most important pillars of our special strategic and global partnership and an important factor in ensuring peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region,” the source said. Kishida is expected to talk about ways to further expand Japan’s free and open Indo-Pacific policy. “The successful conduct of the first ‘Veer Guardian’ fighter jet exercise in January 2023 in Japan between our two countries was a milestone,” the official added.
