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India, Japan resolve to consolidate, strengthen strategic , global partnership

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ANI Tokyo

India and Japan on Wednesday resolved to further consolidate and strengthen their strategic and global partnership in the years ahead, taking into account changes in the strategic environment.

In a joint statement released after delegation-level talks held here, Prime Ministers Shinto Abe and Dr. Manmohan Singh applauded the commemorative events held to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, and reaffirmed that their two countries shared universal values of freedom, democracy and rule of law, and enjoy very close and wide-ranging relations.

Both expressed satisfaction at the steady growth of political exchanges, dialogue and policy coordination at all levels, and positively evaluated ministerial-level annual dialogues and exchanges, particularly the foreign ministers' strategic dialogue and the ministerial level economic dialogue.

 

The two Prime Ministers also noted the successful outcomes achieved during the"2 plus 2" dialogue, the Foreign Secretary level Dialogue, the Foreign Office Consultations, the Defence Policy Dialogue, the Trilateral Dialogue between India, Japan and the United States, as well as other key interactions on various areas including cyber, counter-terrorism and economic partnership. The two Prime Ministers welcomed the launch of the bilateral Maritime Affairs Dialogue, the first meeting of which was held on 29 January 2013 in Delhi.

Both leaders, according to the joint statement, also welcomed the expansion of defence relations between the two countries based on the Joint Declaration on Security Cooperation between India and Japan.

They expressed satisfaction over the first bilateral exercise between the Indian Navy (IN)and the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) held in June 2012 off the coast of Japan and decided to conduct such exercises on a regular basis with increased frequency.

They decided to establish a Joint Working Group (JWG) to explore modality for the cooperation on the US-2 amphibian aircraft, the joint statement said.

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First Published: May 29 2013 | 7:00 PM IST

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