India, Japan Hold First Joint Fighter Jet Drill In Tokyo

India and Japan began their first joint fighter jet exercise near Tokyo on Monday as the countries strengthen defence and security ties in response to China's growing military might, according to the news agency AFP.

According to Japan's defence ministry, eight Japanese fighter jets will participate in the 11-day joint exercise, with India sending four fighters, two transport planes and an aerial refuelling tanker.

The two countries agreed to the drill during talks between Japanese and Indian defence and foreign ministers in 2019, but it was postponed due to the pandemic.

According to the media report, approximately 150 Indian Air Force personnel are taking part in the exercise at the Hyakuri Air Base in Ibaraki prefecture, northeast of Tokyo.

In recent months, Tokyo has held a series of joint military exercises, as well as overhauling its defence and security strategy and explicitly airing its concerns about China.

Japan and India, along with Australia and the United States, are members of the Quad alliance, a grouping of regional powers concerned about China's military and economic influence.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's government committed in December to doubling defence spending to 2 per cent of GDP by 2027, labelling China the “greatest strategic challenge ever” to Japan's security, according to the report.

Last week, Japan signed a new defence treaty with the United Kingdom and agreed to expand its mutual defence treaty with the United States to include space-based attacks.

Both countries took part in Exercise Dharma Guardian-2022 in February-March of last year, an annual exercise between the Indian Army and the Japanese Ground Self-defence Force at the Foreign Training Node in Belgaum.