India opens its army, navy and air bases for Japan; adds military heft to Quad amid stand-off with C

India and Japan have opened up their military bases for each other’s army, navy and air force – elevating bilateral defence cooperation amid China’s growing belligerence.

With New Delhi and Tokyo signing the Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement (ACSA), India now has military logistics sharing agreement with all its partners – the United States, Australia and Japan – in the ‘Quad’, a four-nation coalition re-launched in November 2017 to build a bulwark against China’s expansionist moves in the Indo-Pacific region.

The India-Japan Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement (ACSA) was signed in New Delhi shortly before the Prime Ministers of the two nations – Narendra Modi and Shinzo Abe – spoke with each other over the phone. They concurred that the agreement would “further enhance the depth of defence cooperation between the two countries and contribute to peace and security in the Indo-Pacific region”, according to a press release issued by the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi.

Modi and Abe were expected to hold a virtual summit on Thursday but since Abe recently announced his resignation from the office of the Prime Minister of Japan, a full-fledged summit was not held.

The new pact will set up a framework for the militaries of India and Japan to share logistics and help each other by providing food, water, billeting, transport, petroleum, oils, lubricants, clothing and communications as well as medical services to each other’s personnel. It also allows sharing of military bases, storage and other facilities, training services, spare parts and components as well as providing repair and maintenance services at the airports and seaports to each other.