By Prashanth Parameswaran
Inaugural high-level meeting held in New Delhi.
This week, India, Japan and Australia held their first ever high-level trilateral dialogue in New Delhi. The talks were attended by Indian foreign secretary S Jaishankar, Japanese vice foreign minister Akitaka Saiki and Australian secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Varghese.
The trio reportedly discussed a range of issues at the dialogue. Maritime security was on the agenda, including freedom of navigation in the South China Sea and trilateral maritime cooperation in the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. The countries also discussed the prospects for greater economic cooperation.
Indian naval sources also said that a joint exercise between the three nations is a possibility further down the line and that preliminary talks have already taken place. Indian naval officials are currently in Perth for separate talks on their first ever bilateral maritime exercises with Australia scheduled for September off the east coast of India. Separately, New Delhi is also considering including Japan for this year’s iteration of the Malabar Exercises in October, which has usually been an U.S.-India bilateral engagement. This is in addition to the Japan India Maritime Exercise (JIMEX) held annually between the two countries. Tokyo participated in the Malabar exercises last year as well.
The three countries also agreed to hold their next round of talks in Tokyo.
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