Japan Urges India to Speed Up Approval of UNICORN Naval Radar Deal

Japan has urged India to expedite the internal official processing of an agreement on the UNICORN (Unified Complex Radio Antenna) naval radar system, which the two countries signed during Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's visit to India in July.

A senior official of Japan's Ministry of Defence said a basic agreement on the transfer of the technology is in place, and Tokyo is now awaiting clearances within the Indian establishment. The official expressed the hope that New Delhi would move the process forward quickly.

The official said the bilateral India-Japan naval exercise, Veer Guardian 2026, concluded last week, and that the Quad naval exercise, Malabar, will take place before the end of this year near the Sea of Japan.

Speaking about the wider security environment, the official said Japan will soon overhaul its key policy documents on defence, national security and military supply plans. Three such documents were formulated in 2022 and were originally due for revision in 2027, but the exercise is being brought forward in view of the ongoing conflicts in West Asia and Ukraine.

The official stressed the need for uninterrupted counter-measures against drones and other unmanned platforms. Drones and artificial intelligence are increasingly being used in combat, which is accelerating military decision-making, the official noted, adding that using expensive missiles to bring down drones is becoming costly because stockpiles can be depleted within a week. A policy document published in August said Japan considers it necessary to field large numbers of diverse unmanned assets, integrate them with conventional platforms and operate them flexibly according to mission requirements and battlefield conditions.

The official also pointed to activities by China, Russia and North Korea as a matter of concern for Tokyo, saying Japan is monitoring their military movements. Rapidly rising Chinese military expenditure, which the official described as non-transparent, Chinese activity in areas around Japan, and joint China-Russia bomber flights near Japan are worrying, the official said, without characterising them as a threat. North Korea, the official added, is assisting Russia in its campaign in Ukraine and is receiving technology from Moscow in return.

Despite these challenges, the official said Japan will not strike any country first and will maintain only the minimum defence capability needed for self-defence, to be exercised if the country comes under attack. Japan, the official said, will not assert military power but will contribute proactively to regional peace and stability.

The remarks follow criticism from China's Foreign Ministry earlier this month, which referred to Japan's wartime history of aggression and Tokyo's plans to revise its pacifist constitution, calling the moves a challenge to the postwar international order and a threat to regional peace.

The Japanese official reiterated Tokyo's concern over China's test-firing of a submarine-launched ballistic missile in the South China Sea on July 6, describing Chinese military activity as lacking transparency, very rapid and wide-ranging. Japan's defence ministry will continue to work with allies and like-minded countries in responding to such actions in the South China Sea, the official said.