Indian defence minister A K Antony and his Japanese counterpart Itsunori Onodera have agreed to promote the export of Japan's ShinMaywa US-2i amphibious search-and-rescue (SAR) aircraft to India.
The defence ministers also agreed to strengthen bilateral cooperation in 2014 by holding joint training exercises between Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) and the Indian Navy (IN) in the Indian Ocean for a third straight year, and to organise meetings between senior officials from the Japan Air Self-Defense Force and Indian Air Force.
Noting that he was the first Japanese defence minister to visit India in four years, Onodera described his 6 January meeting with Antony as "a very useful discussion".
Officials first met to discuss the sale of the US-2i amphibious, fixed-wing aircraft on 23 December in India. Onodera proposed that the next round of talks on the deal be held in Japan and also offered a test flight for Indian officials.
The IN issued requests for information for an amphibian in late 2010 to ShinMaywa, Canada's Bombardier for its CL-415 platform, Russia's Beriev for its Be-200, and US/German company Dornier for its Seastar CD2.
The US-2 (the 'i' is the international variant) is in service with the JMSDF. It has a range of 4,700 km at a speed of 550 km/h and is the only one of the four contenders that can operate in Sea State 5. The 47-tonne US-2i has a maximum take-off distance of 280 m on water and is also capable of landing at extremely low speeds.
Chinese media criticised Japan's attempts to make the US-2 its first overseas military sale since it imposed a weapons export ban in 1967. Commenting on this criticism, Onodera said: "China is perhaps one of the largest weapon exporters in the world. While China is selling many weapons to the world, Japan is just dealing with flying boats. There's something strange [about this criticism] and the rest of the world should share it too."
Japanese defence officials have said the planned sale of the US-2 to India to fulfill the IN's requirement for nine amphibious aircraft would not infringe its ban on arms exports because the aircraft is a dual-use, unarmed platform.
Onodera later told reporters that the alliance between Japan and India will be further strengthened when prime minister Shinzo Abe visits Delhi to celebrate India's Republic Day on 26 January.Kosuke Takahashi, Tokyo - IHS Jane's Navy International
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