New Delhi
22 August 2010
China's military buildup and the situation in Sri Lanka was discussed at some
length when Japan's foreign minister Katsuya Okada met External affairs minister SM
Krishna here Saturday rpt Saturday for the fourth round of the India - Japan strategic
dialogue.
The discussions were held under the rubric of the evolving regional architecture in Asia
and the ministers exchanged views on how to further strengthen the many dimensions of
the India - Japan strategic and global partnership.
Neither side has acknowledged that the ramped-up Chinese investment in military
hardware or its naval buildup had been discussed leave alone divulge the substance of
their discussions on China.
All Mr Krishna said after the talks was that they "discussed ways of further consolidating
the excellent political, economic, security and people-to-people relations that India and
Japan enjoy."
For his part, Mr Okada said he had extremely useful exchange of views on numerous
regional and international issues such as the inclusion of the US and Russia in the East
Asia Summit, United Nations Security Council reform, and the situation in Afghanistan,
Pakistan and North Korea.
However, sources privy to the talks indicated that both sides exchanged views on how
an opaque Chinese defence budget and non-transparent nature of military spending
posed a challenge for them and for the region as a whole.
Tokyo is learnt to have conveyed to New Delhi that while it enjoys closing trade links
with China, the communist country should make its military more open and transparent
in the interest of regional peace and security.
Both sides shared a concern about China's move to provide Pakistan with two additional
civilian nuclear reactors.
The discussions took place in the backdrop of a recent United States' Department of
Defence report which said China has moved new missiles close to the border with India
and how China's military buildup was "a major factor in changing East Asian military
balances".
On Sri Lanka, the Japanese delegation side is understood to have sought India's views
on how Colombo could be persuaded to be more open to media and NGOs alike in
permitting them to access the former LTTE areas in the island's north.
No comments:
Post a Comment