Rajnath Singh to begin 5-Day visit to Mongolia, Japan on Monday

New Delhi, Sep 04: Giving a push to the strategic partnership with East Asian countries, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will embark on a five-day visit to Mongolia and Japan beginning Monday.

The upcoming visit by Rajnath Singh is the first ever visit by an Indian Defence Minister to Mongolia and will further consolidate the defence cooperation and strategic partnership between the two countries.

During the visit, Rajnath Singh will hold bilateral talks with Mongolia's Minister of Defence, Lt Gen. Saikhanbayar.

He shall call on the President of Mongolia, U. Khurelsukh, and Chairman of the State Great Khural of Mongolia, G Zandanshatar. The two democracies have a common interest in fostering peace and prosperity in the entire region.

India and Mongolia share a strategic partnership and the defense is a key pillar of this partnership.

The bilateral defense engagements with Mongolia have been expanding over a period of time to include wide-ranging contacts between the two countries, including Joint Working Group meetings, military-to-military exchanges, high-level visits, capacity building, training programs, and bilateral exercises.

During bilateral talks, the two Defence Ministers shall review the bilateral defence cooperation between India and Mongolia, and explore new initiatives to further strengthen bilateral engagements. The two leaders will also exchange views on regional and global issues of shared interest.

In Japan, Singh and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will join their Japanese counterparts under the framework of '2 2' foreign and defence ministerial dialogue, people familiar with the matter said on Sunday.

Singh will visit Mongolia from September 5 to 7 while his tour of Japan will be from September 8-9.

It is learnt that the '2 2' dialogue is planned for September 8.

The dialogue is taking place over five months after Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida visited India for the annual India-Japan summit.

At the summit in New Delhi, Kishida announced an investment target of five trillion Yen (Rs 3,20,000 crore) in India over the next five years.

In the 2 2 dialogue, the two sides are expected to deliberate on ways to further expand bilateral cooperation in the areas of defence and security besides taking stock of the developments in the Indo-Pacific, the people cited above said.

The Japanese delegation will be headed at the talks by Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi and Defence Minister Yasukazu Hamada.