New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe described the military pact as a development that will augment peace and security in the Indo- Pacific. Also known as ACSA (Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement), the agreement is expected to promote closer cooperation between the armed forces of India and Japan.

The two countries embroiled in boundary disputes with an increasingly aggressive China. The agreement was followed by, as Japan described it, a summit phone talk between Modi and Abe. The two agreed that the ACSA will deepen defence cooperation between two countries even as speculation mounts about how Abe’s exit could impact Japan’s free and open Indo- Pacific strategy that merged seamlessly with India’s own act East policy. Both leaders expressed confidence that the India- Japan partnership will continue “unabated”.

Modi and Abe got famously, not the least because of their mutual annual summits. ACSA was supposed to be signed in a physical summit this year but that was put paid to buy Abe’s sudden decision to resign because of health reasons and Covid-19. The 2019 summit also couldn’t take place because of anti- CAA protest in Assam. Abe started his conversation with Modi on Thursday by explaining why was resigning and expressed his gratitude for the friendship and the relationship of trust built with the Modi.

Modi thanked Abe for taking the bilateral relationship to another level and invited him and his wife to visit India at leisure. They recalled their meetings in Varanasi, Sabarmati, Kobe and Kyoto and also Modi’s visit to Abe’s ancestral home in Yamanashi.