New Delhi
8 April 2011
India and Japan agreed Friday to establish a trilateral dialogue with the United
States on regional and global issues.
The announcement came ahead of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's conversations with
President Hu Jintao of China next week on the margins of the inaugural BRICS summit.
A statement issued towards the end of foreign secretary Nirupama Rao's talks in Tokyo,
a copy of which was posted on the website of the ministry of external affairs (MEA), said
"these consultations, agreed to earlier by the US, will be conducted by the foreign
ministries of the three countries."
The trilateral dialogue will be in addition to the annual security dialogues between and
among them. Japan has a 2+2 (foreign and defence) dialogue with the US and Australia
(at the ministerial-level) and with India, at the level of secretaries, although the ministers
of defence and external affairs of India and Japan meet regularly. India and the US have
a bilateral strategic dialogue, too; Washington hosted its inaugural meeting in June
2010.
The India-US-Japan trilateral dialogue has been discussed for some time now, but it
gathered momentum in 2007 after their navies participated in an exercise off the
Japanese coast. Also later that year, India concluded the multilateral Malabar exercise
involving the navies of the US, Japan, Singapore and Australia, in the Bay of Bengal.
The India-US-Japan trilateral naval exercise was repeated in 2009.
The MEA statement said the new ministerial-level economic dialogue, announced by the
prime ministers of India and Japan at their annual summit in Tokyo in October 2010, will
be led by their ministers of external affairs. Its first meeting will take place later this
year.
In her talks, foreign secretary Rao let her Japanese interlocutors know that India had not
yet taken a decision on banning Japanese food imports following fears of radioactive
contamination from the stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant. India will consult Japan
prior to taking a decision on the advisory issued by the Food Safety and Standards
Authority of India, the MEA statement noted.
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