Japan-US 2+2 Welcomes Growing Ties With India

The US-Japan 2+2 ministerial meeting has welcomed the growing ties between their countries and India in the Indo-Pacific region that is of vital strategic interest to them. The defence and diplomatic cabinet officials of the two countries expressed satisfaction on Friday with the trilateral meeting with India and noted significance of joint military exercises, the State Department said in a statement.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Acting Defence Secretary Patrick Shanahan met on Friday with Japan’s Foreign Minister Taro Kono and Defence Minister Takeshi Iwaya for their high-level strategic meeting focused on building a free and open Indo-Pacific. “The Ministers also noted with satisfaction the first Japan-US-India trilateral summit meeting in 2018 and highlighted significant joint exercises, such as Malabar 2018 and Cope India 2018”, the statement said.

In the Asia region, where China is building up its presence and is involved in aggressive maritime disputes with several countries, the US and Japan “Ministers called for full respect for freedoms of navigation and overflight and other lawful uses of the sea, and reiterated the importance of activities that support those principles”, the statement said. (IANS)

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