India-Japan defence ties stepped up
By Devsagar Singh
India and Japan are steadily marching towards greater strategic and economic ties in the wake of changes in the geo-political scene in the East and South East Asian region and emergence of China as a global power centre. The just concluded summit in New Delhi between the prime ministers of India and Japan last month took their bilateral relations one notch higher.
The two countries have decided to hold a joint bilateral naval exercises later this year, signalling that their partnership in the blue seas, especially in the strategic Indian Ocean, is complete. Both countries have been trying to bolster their defences in the sea lanes which is so crucial for the bilateral and multilateral trade in the region.
The growing rivalry between Japan and China over the South China Sea is well known. Recently, India too had a brush with China over a joint oil exploration contract with Vietnam in the same region. The interests of the two countries (India and Japan) coalesced to make them join hands.
What is a matter of concern, though, is the fact that even the US is seeking to join hands with India and Japan to checkmate China in the region. It is not without significance that India, Japan and US held a trilateral in Washington DC just days before the Japanese PM arrived in India with his summit with Dr Manmohan Singh. This is the first ever trilateral and had a definite bearing on the Noda-Manmohan Singh summit in New Delhi. Noda, though, tried to give a different spin to this trilateral exercise by visiting India via Beijing as well as making a declaration that the trilateral was never meant against any country (read China).
Another issue of major importance that came up between the two Prime Ministers is the India-Japan dialogue on the civilian nuclear cooperation between the two countries. On this ticklish issue, both countries have moved ahead cautiously. Japan has committed to hold further dialogue in the matter while India has reiterated its commitment of unilateral moratorium over nuclear explosion in the future. India made an explicit declaration that it was all for working towards a nuclear weapon-free world. This should go a long way into assuaging the sensitivities of the Japanese public mind which is unable to forget the holocaust brought about on the innocent people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki more than 60 years ago.
India knows that it will take time for Japan to sign on the dotted lines. However, through deft diplomacy with the US, India has been able to take the Japanese Government on board on the nuclear cooperation issue. Significantly, Japanese government is willing to go ahead. It is the Japanese public opinion which is putting the roadblock. Observers believe that it would take some more time, maybe about a year, for the two countries to sign the civilian nuclear cooperation treaty.
Another area in which the two countries are likely to go ahead in the near future is collaborative venture in production of fast moving navy vessels. India is too keen for a joint production of these vessels which are of immense use to our coast guard. Japan is, however, reluctant to part with the technology. With growing ties, this looks like a possibility in the near future.
Other high-end Japanese defence products like precision maritime weapons system and attack vessels could also be available to India on sale now that Japan has freed them for open sale to countries not engaged in war. That the announcement of such open sale was made on the eve of the Japan-India summit is significant. Even though no specific agreement in this regard was signed during the meeting of the two prime ministers, observers see it coming in not too distant a future.
That Japan did not cut its ODA assistance to India despite pressures following great tsunami goes to prove that it zealously wants to guard its economic relations with a country of over a billion people. No just that, it further announced participation in new projects like Delhi metro phase III as also West Bengal Forest and Biodiversity Project. This will be apart from its other commitments like Delhi-Mumbai Industrial corridor etc. And an icing in the cake was signing of 15 billion dollar currency swap agreement between the two countries. It was not in the structured agenda of the summit till the very last day. But the two Prime Ministers made it happen through their deft handling at a very opportune time for India proves that Japan is ready to walk an extra mile.
It is time the two big economies in the East take along the ASEAN nations (the 10-nation grouping) to further realise their goal of a safer and sturdier East and South East Asia to which both have made commitments in the last East Asia Summit. (IPA Service)