1.5. Expanding Scope

♤ In the few years the momentum in relationship is marked by the following developments:

o Since 2015 Japan has been made a permanent participant in the Malabar naval exercises which also involves the US;

o the two countries have inked a civil nuclear deal in 2016—Japan’s first with a non- signatory to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT);

o the India-Japan-US trilateral has been upgraded to ministerial level; and