India and Japan on Wednesday lifted their strategic convergence to a new level by vowing to work together for ensuring stability in the Asia-Pacific region in the face of growing muscle-flexing by China. An upgrade of strategic ties was long on the cards but China’s audacity by sending a contingent of troops across the border into Ladakh, camping there for days before withdrawing, convinced India that strategic common cause with Japan was necessary. The Japanese have also been at the receiving end of Chinese hegemonistic tendencies in the Senkaku islands that have been a subject of dispute between the two nations. The potentially large reserves of oil and gas in the vicinity of the islands and their geostrategic location have escalated the contest. Chinese efforts to rekindle land and sea disputes in South-east Asia have also brought it in conflict with other countries including Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei.
The prospects of closer ties between India and Japan have been helped by prime minister Shinzo Abe’s avowal of emotional attachment to India. The new momentum in ties was evident from the statements of both the prime ministers which stood out against the backdrop of the advice of People’s Daily, a mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party, that Japan should deal with China in a calm way and not be swayed by “internal and international provocateurs”. New Delhi has done well to ignore Beijing’s unsolicited advice.
Too often in the past have India and Japan moved closer and drifted apart. This time it is imperative that we develop our economic ties with Japan as a counterweight to growing Chinese economic dominance in India. In the face of recent proof of the ominous China-Pakistan nexus, India should expand its ‘Look East’ policy not only to include Japan but also other countries in South-East Asia and South Asia that are alarmed by China’s expansionist designs. Japan has also shed its reluctance on civil nuclear co-operation. This, in conjunction with Indo-Japanese defence co-operation, is a positive signal.