New Delhi (Sputnik): Enhancing the security co-operation level, India and Japan signed the implementing arrangement on maritime domain awareness (MDA) during their annual bilateral summit on Monday. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the signing of the arrangement during a joint statement with his counterpart Shinzo Abe in Tokyo.
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"Recognizing that enhanced exchanges in expanding maritime domain awareness (MDA) in the Indo-Pacific region contribute to regional peace and stability, they welcomed the signing of the Implementing Arrangement for deeper cooperation between the Indian Navy and the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF)," the vision statement issued after the meeting reads.
The two countries have also instituted Foreign and Defence Ministerial Dialogue (2+2) that will support the existing mechanisms, including the Annual Defence Ministerial Dialogue, Defence Policy Dialogue, the National Security Advisers' Dialogue, Staff-level Dialogue of each service.
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As per the expected line, the two countries also initiated negotiations on the Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement (ACSA) to enhance the strategic depth of bilateral security and defense cooperation. The ACSA is a mutual logistics support agreement which intended to allow the navies of the two countries to get access to each other's military bases. India has a similar logistics support agreement with the US, France, and Singapore.
