Japan, India to Accelerate Space, Cyber Security Cooperation; Set to Confirm Revision of Joint Declaration at 2+2 Meeting

The Yomiuri Shimbun

14:33 JST, August 17, 2024

Japan and India are poised to accelerate space and cyber security cooperation and boost joint drills to deepen security ties.

At a two-plus-two foreign and defense ministerial meeting to be held in India on Tuesday, both governments will confirm their intentions to revise the “Joint Declaration on Security Cooperation” inked in 2008 and to incorporate the fields of space and cyber security into the revised declaration.

The joint declaration has spelled out the building of comprehensive cooperative ties in the security field, including the interchange of foreign and defense officials and the security of maritime transport.

At the upcoming two-plus-two meeting, the two countries will hold full-fledged discussions on the revision, taking China’s increasing maritime expansion into account.

The two countries are set to work out the revised joint declaration to coincide with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Japan, which is due to take place by the year’s end.

Since the 2008 signing, the importance of new spheres of security such as space and cyber has increased.

Japan and India have been strengthening bilateral cooperation, accordingly, holding their first talks on cyberspace in 2012 and first dialogue on space in 2019.

Japan’s Ground, Maritime, and Air Self-Defense Forces have also conducted joint drills with the Indian military, starting with the Air Self-Defense Force conducting a joint exercise with the Indian Air Force in 2018.

Both countries are also considering incorporating further cooperation toward a “free and open Indo-Pacific,” with a view to put pressure on China, with which India also has tense relations.

India has upheld its commitment to “strategic autonomy,” which means the country will not be dependent on any particular country or force. It maintains friendly relations even with Russia, which is conducting a campaign of aggression against Ukraine.

By including in the joint declaration a new reference to progress in bilateral security cooperation with India, Japan also aims, as a senior Foreign Ministry official put it, “not to let cooperative ties move backward.”

The upcoming two-plus-two talks will be the third of its kind and the first since September 2022.

The meeting will be attended by Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa and Defense Minister Minoru Kihara, India’s External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and Defense Minister Rajnath Singh.

At the meeting, they are also expected to discuss such topics as the export of Japanese defense equipment to India.