India has already signed similar agreements with the United States, France and Singapore. “The agreement should facilitate the smooth and rapid delivery of supplies and services between Japan`s self-defense forces and the Indian armed forces,” he said. India and Japan announced on Thursday that they had signed an agreement allowing the armed forces of both countries to source supplies to the bases of the other state. These include fuel, spare parts and services such as food and water. In June, the Indian navy conducted a maritime exercise with the Japanese navy to strengthen military cooperation. The signing of the agreement comes at a time when India is caught up in a bitter border dispute with China and countries in the region are increasingly concerned about China`s persuasive power in the Indo-Pacific region. So far, India has signed military logistics agreements with the United States, France, Australia, South Korea and Singapore. By signing the pact with Japan, India has concluded a military logistics agreement with all other “quad” countries. And we know that this is bland, because unlike other official military logistics agreements in which India participates, the text of the agreement with Japan is accessible to the public via the website of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In early June, India signed a similar agreement with Australia — a “mutual logistics assistance agreement” allowing reciprocal access to each country`s military bases.
On 24 August, I stated in these pages that one of the reasons why India`s “fundamental” defence cooperation agreements with the United States – including a logistical agreement – are drawing so much political attention to national territory, because “the texts of these agreements – and even official summaries – continue to serve as suspicion in a country that deeply protects its sovereignty and independent foreign policy.” Indeed, in the absence of a draft agreement on the U.S.-India Logistics Exchange 2016, some analysts have confused it with a “status of forces” agreement on fundamental rights and all that would entail. The pacts signed with the United States and France provide, among other things, access to various important indian army bases in Djibouti, Guam and the Reunion Islands. Under Article 1 of the agreement, the logistics pact would cover the mutual use of supplies and services for the following activities – the military agreement “will also improve interoperability between the armed forces of India and Japan, thereby strengthening bilateral defence operations under the Strategic Partnership and The Global Partnership between the two countries,” says a separate statement from the Indian Ministry of Defence.