PM Manmohan Singh and his visiting Japan counterpart Shinzo Abe have agreed to further deepen the strategic and global partnership between the two countries. Singh said Japan was at the heart of India’s Look East policy.
The meeting saw Abe, who is the first Japanese PM to attend India’s Republic Day celebrations as chief guest, emphasize on the need for the two countries to contribute jointly to the peace, stability and prosperity of the region and the world taking into account changes in the strategic environment, a joint statement issued after the meeting said.
While China has so far refrained from making any adverse comment about Abe’s decision to accept India’s invitation to grace R-Day, Beijing’s likely response has been a subject of much speculation by international media. India has already clarified that the R-Day parade is as much civilian as it is military.
The two countries signed as many as eight pacts, including one for promotion of tourism and several others for Japanese soft loans and official development assistance to India.
In a statement, Singh expressed satisfaction over the political engagement and expanding defence and security cooperation between India and Japan. The PMs said they were happy with the launch of regular consultations between the secretary-general of National Security Secretariat of Japan and India’s national security advisor.
Japan is sailing in where China fears to tread. As India and Japan ramp up their bilateral relationship, India has invited Japan to invest in and build overland infrastructure in areas which are generally out of bounds for Chinese investments.
India and Japan used the visit of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to dramatically expand the scope of bilateral cooperation to include the politically sensitive northeastern states of India, areas where Chinese investment or projects are actively discouraged. Japanese companies will have the opportunity to help the development of the northeast specially to build roads, and aid agriculture, forestry and water supply and sewerage in these states.
China claims Arunachal Pradesh as its territory, which has aggravated border tensions between India and China. Security agencies have also long tracked Chinese weapons assistance to militant outfits in northeastern states. It has taken India many difficult years to calm down these hills, but China remains a significant security threat.
For India to invite Japan to build infrastructure here is a huge political statement.
In 2007, China opposed an ADB loan for development works in Arunachal Pradesh describing it as “disputed territory”.
The last time the Japanese were in India’s northeast was during the second world war, when they worked with Netaji Subhash Bose’s INA to confront the British in Nagaland. Japanese companies have also been invited to help develop a new port in Chennai, which would be used to improve India’s sea-route connectivity.
Abe considers Singh as his mentor or guru, Tomohiko Taniguchi, a close aide of the visiting Japanese leader and a councillor in Japan’s Cabinet Secretariat said. Under the economist turned-politician who is not seeking a third term as Prime Minister, India’s relationship with Japan has grown into a strategic partnership, with wariness towards China’s increasing global clout playing a catalyst to the expanding ties between New Delhi and Tokyo. Japan is the only country after Russia with which India holds annual summit meetings. The growing relationship was also visible from recent high-level visits – Japan’s Emperor Akihito visited India last year, while Singh had gone to Tokyo before that. Abe was the chief guest at India’s Republic Day celebrations on Sunday.
Abe was very keen to undertake this visit to take forward from where he had left after his last trip to Delhi as prime minister in 2007, Taniguchi said. In between, he had come to India in 2011 as an opposition leader and at that time, Singh had organised a meeting between some of his ministers and Abe at short notice, Taniguchi said, explaining the warm ties between the two leaders.
According to Taniguchi, the joint statement that India and Japan issued after the annual summit on Saturday is exhaustive and can withstand any changes in political equations after the coming Lok Sabha elections.
The statement covered energy partnerships, economy and investments with Japan promising continued support for India’s infrastructure projects. But defence was the main focus of the statement. While it covered maritime security and India-US-Japan naval exercises, India and Japan have also agreed to have meetings at the level of their national security advisers.Japan’s NSA,who is accompanying Abe on this trip,will hold discussions with his Indian counterpart Shivshankar Menon on China’s military rise as well as situation in N Korea, South China and East China Sea,Afghanistan,Iran and Iraq.
Meanwhile, a Japanese official speaking on condition of anonymity described Narendra Modi, BJP’s candidate for Prime Minister, as “energetic, good at engaging and one who has experienced advisers with him”.
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