• Japan has remarked the sale of U.S-2 aircraft as part of the goal for realising a “Free and Open Indo-Pacific”.
• India and Japan have been negotiating the US-2 amphibious aircraft deal for the last six years or so, but there has been no headway due to the high price.

Significance of Indo-Pacific:

• The two countries have been deepening their cooperation on “Free and Open Indo Pacific” in the wake of an assertive and pro-active China, and they now participate in the Malabar exercises and also hold the Quadrilateral meeting with the US and Australia.

In the context of the same:

• Japan is also preparing for early holding of the 2+2 ministerial meeting between the two countries. Japan is the second country to have a dialogue with India, after the US.
• Making progress in the cooperation for promoting connectivity through high-quality infrastructure, and Work to concretize defence and security cooperation.
• The other areas of cooperation were:
• Importance of defence
• Outer space
• Digital economy
• Mumbai Ahmedabad high speed railway project
• Convention Centre in Varanasi
• Infrastructure projects in North-East India
• A cancer hospital in Kenya
• India is also willing for a new initiative with Japan, which is a coalition of countries for disaster-resilient infrastructure, and the need to enhance capacity building abilities of countries.