India and Japan are likely to take their relationship to the next level during Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit to New Delhi for the annual bilateral summit next week. Given the acrimony between Japan and China, this visit is likely to be closely watched by Beijing, which believes India, Japan and the US might be ganging up against it over the South China Sea dispute.
In July, these three nations had conducted the annual Malabar exercise in the Bay of Bengal, amidst reports of Chinese submarines stepping up their activities in the region. Japan and India also conduct the Japan-India Maritime Exercise or JIMEX, since 2012. Both nations subscribe to a “Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy” which goes against China’s claim to almost the entire South China Sea. A maritime security deal between the two nations is thus of obvious concern to Beijing.
Among other things, Abe is also expected to lay the foundation stone for the 500-km Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed railway corridor, expected to reduce the travel time between the two cities to less than three hours from the current seven when it is launched in 2023.
While Japan’s Shinkansen (bullet train) will travel on this route, China is carrying out feasibility studies for Chennai-New Delhi and New Delhi-Mumbai routes in the hope of getting those contracts. The rapport between PM Narendra Modi and Abe has also led to Japan being the only foreign nation allowed to invest in India’s Northeast and the strategic Andaman and Nicobar islands.
Also on the cards during Abe’s visit is the possibility of expanding the Indo-Japanese civil nuclear deal, which came into force in July this year. Signed in November 2016, this allows Japan to export nuclear power plant technology as well as finance joint nuclear power plants in India and assist India in nuclear waste management.
An icing on the cake could be the sale of a dozen or more US-2i amphibious search and rescue aircraft for the Indian Navy and Coast Guard. Given the increasing convergence of interests, this is one relationship that is poised to take off.