India indispensable partner in ensuring free Indo-Pacific:PM Kishida

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Monday called India vital to ensuring a free and open Indo-Pacific after talks with his counterpart touching on shared concerns about China. Speaking in New Delhi after meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Kishida laid out plans for billions of dollars in investments in infrastructure and other sectors across the region. "I have described Japan's plan to develop a free and open Indo-Pacific. To achieve this, India is an indispensable partner," Kishida said. Kishida said Monday that the  Free and Open Indo-Pacific  FOIP's scope would expand to include new areas like climate change, cybersecurity and food security. India and Japan have been talking about how India and Japan can cooperate on the Act East. They are talking about how connectivity projects can be built which link India's north-east with the rest of the countries that fall under Act East.

Outlining a number of initiatives, Kishida said the Bay of Bengal-Northeast India industrial value chain concept will be promoted in cooperation with India and Bangladesh to foster the growth of the entire region. India and Japan signed two documents on the sidelines of the bilateral talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. The agreements include Renewal of Memorandum of Cooperation in Japanese language, and Exchange of notes on JICA loan for 300 billion Yen on Mumbai-Ahmedabad high speed railway project.

"Japan will strengthen coordination with the US, Australia, UK, Canada, Europe and elsewhere. Of course, India is indispensable."India, Japan, the United States and Australia make up the Quad alliance, which positions itself as a bulwark against China's growing assertiveness in the Asia-Pacific region under President Xi Jinping. Japan is also boosting military spending and is carrying out more joint exercises with other countries, including India, which has also deepened defence cooperation with Western nations.