Prime minister Manmohan Singh’s three-day visit to Japan provides an opportunity to scale up the global and strategic partnership launched by him and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe in 2006. India-friendly Abe, who visited the country in 2007, is seen as a keen votary of improved ties. After his return to power, Abe had his commitment to deepen ties with New Delhi, which he once described as having “the largest potential for development of any bilateral relations anywhere in the world”. From India’s point of view, Japan, with $954 billion in foreign exchange reserves and willing to invest in the country, is definitely a partner in India’s rise.
With big-ticket Japanese investments in projects like the Delhi Metro, the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor and the Dedicated Freight Corridor, economic ties have been the main anchor for India-Japan relations. There are some indications that Japan may be once again looking favourably at the prospect of promoting India-Japan nuclear co-operation. India’s record in nuclear non-proliferation has been impeccable and recognised by the Nuclear Suppliers’ Group. It has also concluded nuclear energy co-operation agreements with the US, UK, France, and Canada and Australia has also decided to sign one.
Japan is a country with which India does not have any competing national interest, no historical baggage like the 1962 war with China and no simmering rivalry in the background. Abe has advocated revising the Japanese constitution for the first time since the Second World War, as part of plans to strengthen the military as it prepares for a territorial conflict with China over the Senkaku islands in the East China Sea and threats from North Korea’s nuclear programme. Singh’s visit should seek to spell out the convergence of the security interests of the two countries in the areas of maritime security, combating terrorism, containing sea piracy and securing freedom of navigation on the high seas. It is time Japan and India, both pressured by China’s territorial claims, looked at adding strategic content to their bilateral relations.