India, Japan and US trio meet to maintain Maritime Security

Ensuring peace, prosperity and security as an agenda the foreign ministers of India, Japan and the United States held their first trilateral meeting in New York which highlighted the growing convergence of their respective countries in the Indo-Pacific region and collaboration on maritime security. This meeting was held on sidelines of last week’s United States Strategic and Commercial Dialogue.

PARTICIPANTS
External Affairs Minister – Sushma Swaraj
Japanese Foreign Minister – Fumio Kishida
US Secretary of State – John Kerry

DISCUSSIONS

• Peaceful settlement of dispute regarding South China Sea which is of main concern as China has grown coverage in sea.
• Emphasized the importance of international law, freedom of navigation and overflight and impeded lawful commerce.
• Support for ASEAN centrality in the multilateral political and security architecture in the Asia Pacific region
• Discussed the importance of the East Asia Summit which will hold in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in November for addressing key political and security issues of their region.
• The trio also agreed to work together to maintain maritime security through greater collaboration.
• Japan will also participate in the 2015 MALABAR exercise which is a naval exercise of US and India.
• Assembling of an expert level group on humanitarian assistance and disaster relief which will enhance ability for jointly handle a complex disaster.
• The trio has launched an experts-level group on regional connectivity which will explore cooperation on women’s skill enhancement & economic empowerment.