India and Japan amplify regional power through partnerships

FORUM Staff

India and Japan have strengthened their relationship through recently expanded economic, military and other strategic partnerships in a move described by analysts as a counterbalance to China’s continued growth and expansion.

“India-Japan working together is an idea whose time has finally come,” Aparna Pande, director of the Washington-based Hudson Institute’s Initiative on the Future of India and South Asia, told Bloomberg. “The relationship has the potential to become ‘the’ defining relationship of this century.”

The agreements reached in December 2015 between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe build upon a foundation set by their predecessors five years ago.

In 2010, former Japanese Prime Minister Nato Kan and former Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh outlined a joint vision for a Japan-India strategic global partnership during the second decade of the 21st century. At the time, Kan and Singh “reiterated the fundamental identity of values, interests and priorities between Japan and India,” according to a 2010 joint statement, which did not mention China. “They reaffirmed the political commitment in both countries cutting across party lines and popular desire for upgrading bilateral relations, and valued their cooperation for sustained peace and prosperity in a changing and dynamic Asia and the world.”

The latest vision and agreements put forth by India and Japan have a dual purpose: deepen bilateral ties that elevate the pair as a regional powerhouse and ensure that China’s expansion doesn’t hinder the growth of smaller countries and their economies.

For the Modi and Abe pledges, a nuclear deal, high-speed rail and naval drills take center stage. A snapshot of those agreements, according to Bloomberg, include:

• A U.S. $15 billion deal from Japan to build India’s first high-speed rail.
• Defense agreements to contain China’s maritime expansion in the Indo Asia Pacific.
• U.S. $12.4 billion in Japanese funds to spur economic development in India.
• A breakthrough on nuclear cooperation, with India declaring a self-imposed moratorium on nuclear tests.

“I cannot think of a strategic partnership that can exercise a more profound influence on shaping the course of Asia and our interlinked ocean regions more than ours,” Modi said at a joint news conference in New Delhi with Abe after the announcement of their agreements. “In a world of intense international engagements, few visits are truly historic or change the course of a relationship. Your visit, Mr. Prime Minister, is one.”

India and Japan also agreed to share classified intelligence as part of a pending deal to export US-2 amphibious aircraft from Japan to India.

A second round of talks — this time to include Australia — is scheduled to take place in 2016.