On Monday, Defense Minister Rajnath To Begin 5-Day Trip To Mongolia And Japan

On Monday, India’s Defense Minister Rajnath Singh will leave for a five-day trip to Mongolia and Japan. His goal is to strengthen India’s security and defence ties with the two countries.

People who know about the matter said on Sunday that Singh and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will join their Japanese counterparts in Japan as part of a “2+2” foreign and defence ministerial dialogue.

Singh will be in Mongolia from September 5 to September 7, and he will be in Japan from September 8 to September 9.

The “2+2” dialogue is expected to happen on September 8.

Five months have passed since Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida went to India for the annual summit between India and Japan.

At the summit in New Delhi, Kishida said that over the next five years, he wants to invest 5 trillion yen (Rs 3.2 trillion) in India.

People who were quoted above said that during the 2+2 dialogue, the two sides will talk about how to improve their defence and security cooperation and take stock of what’s going on in the Indo-Pacific.

Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi and Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada will lead the Japanese team at the talks.

The talk will happen about three weeks before Shinzo Abe’s state funeral, which will be held in Tokyo on September 27.

The “2+2” dialogue with Japan was started in 2019 to strengthen the special strategic and global partnership between the two countries and deepen their security and defence cooperation.

India has the “2+2” format of ministerial dialogue with only a few countries, such as the US, Japan, Australia, and Russia. Defense and security ties between India and Mongolia are also on the rise.

In May 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi went to Mongolia. This gave the relationship a new boost in many areas, including defence and security.

During the visit, India gave Mongolia a USD 1 billion line of credit to help build up their infrastructure, and their relationship was upgraded to a strategic partnership.

Every year, India and Mongolia work together on a military exercise called “Nomadic Elephant.”

The last two times it was done were in September 2018 in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, and in October 2019 in Himachal Pradesh.