India and Japan on Saturday held their inaugural foreign and defence ministerial dialogue with an aim to give further momentum to their special strategic partnership, particularly in the maritime domain. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar led the Indian delegation while the Japanese side was headed by Foreign Minister Toshi-mitsu Motegi and Minister of Defence Taro Kono.

The Ministers condemned the threat posed to regional security by terrorist networks operating out of Pakistan and called upon it to take resolute and irreversible action against them and fully comply with international commitments including to FATF.

The talks under the new framework are taking place following a decision taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe during the 13th India-Japan annual summit last year.

In the talks, the two sides exchanged views on the situation in the Indo-Pacific region and resolved to work for achieving shared objective of peace, prosperity and progress in the region.

In his address, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said that India’s relationship with Japan has become a major factor in stability of Asia.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar in his address said that the 2+2 dialogue reflects the synergy between India’s Act East Policy and Japan’s vision for free, open Indo-Pacific vision.