India and Japan are, in recent years, edging closer. Yet, there’s a mix of warmth and caution in the way this bilateral relationship is developing. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s present visit to Japan marks a new high in these ties. Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe are seen to have developed a strong personal bond through the several meetings in the past. Thus, the 13th India-Japan Summit in Tokyo this time is watched with considerable interest by observers of the geo-political developments in the region.
The rise of China and the resultant military power bordering on high-handedness that it exercises in the region have put both Japan and India on the alert after the turn of the present century. There is a progressive rise in China’s belligerence, off and on. The more its economic growth, the more the military muscle that it could display, be it in the South China Sea, or along the land borders. While a closer Japan-India cooperation can put China in its place and force it to mind its own business, this is not happening. Japan has constitutional constraints in the matter of military offensives, it having learnt lessons in the past and having adopted a pacifist constitution. Besides, it has a military pact with the US since 1951 that makes any other security alliance difficult to fructify.
At the same time, there are other areas where closer cooperation between India and Japan are possible such as regional and international diplomacy, trade and technology support, for instance. Japan has extended help in the matter of upgrading India’s railway system through projects like bullet train. It has also shown a readiness to offer soft loans for such projects. There’s larger scope for improving bilateral trade. India has a large market for Japanese products. India is well-endowed in the area of human resources though it has a deficit in cutting-edge technology. Japan is reticent about transfer of technology to others, and it is protective about many other matters as well. There still is scope for a substantial presence of Indian workforce in a land where the population is thinning even as the economy retained high steam.
Holding frequent discussions is good, but there have to be spectacular results as well. The base that Modi and Abe built in the past nearly five years need be strengthened and edifices of lasting benefits built over it. This is time to move further forward, and with speed