To deepen India-Japan relations, the two nations will hold their first ever joint military exercise towards the end of this year. The two nations aim at bolstering defence cooperation and further expand bilateral ties in the wake of growing regional challenges posted an aggressive China.

The two sides have agreed upon holding a series of bilateral combat exercises, military exchange modules and top-level visits. India and Japan are also keen to enhance bilateral collaboration in terms of maritime security and defence manufacturing.

Both India and Japan realise the need to move closer towards each other in order to oust China’s growing regional influence and military demonstrations. This would be for the first time that two nations will look to deepen their ties over security and defence manufacturing at such a large scale.

The two nations will hold counter-terrorism military exercises towards the end of the year. The two sides will also indulge their navies in joint naval exercises to specialise in anti-submarine warfare and mine countermeasures.

The same was agreed upon in New Delhi on Monday when the Indian Defence Minister held talks with her Japanese counterpart. The Indian defence minister is also expected to visit Japan next year to further discuss the bolstering of bilateral defence ties. The chief of the Indian Air Force will also be paying a visit to Japan to discuss the viabilities of cooperation between the air forces of the two nations.

With China adopting an aggressive approach towards the South China and the East China Seas, other Asian nations share common concerns and a common objective to curtail China. India and Japan share concerns over China’s growing military presence in the Indo-Pacific region and they now seem to be aligning with each other to put up a larger confrontation against China.