Japan PM Kishida arrives tomorrow

New Delhi, March 18

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will arrive in India on Monday for a brief visit against the backdrop of Tokyo fortifying its islands near Taiwan. During the business end of the visit on Monday, Kishida will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi amid the belief among Quad members that they should move quickly in the Indo-Pacific domain.

The focus of interest will be on Kishida’s speech on a “free and open” Indo-Pacific during his India visit next week. The Japanese media is touting his address at the Indian Council for World Affairs as equally seminal as then Japan PM Shinzo Abe’s “The Confluence of Two Seas” speech in Parliament here in 2007 that gave birth to the Quad.

His speech may announce Japan’s new “Indo-Pacific Action Plan”.