Bharat Rakshak

Recent Relations

During Prime Minister Hatoyama's visit to India in December 2009, Japan and India singed the Joint Statement "New Stage of Japan-India Strategic and Global Partnership".

Main Elements of the Joint Statement "New Stage of Japan-India Strategic and Global Partnership"

Bilateral Cooperation: Finalization of the Action Plan to advance security cooperation, including the establishment of Subcabinet/Senior Official 2 + 2 dialogue, Acceleration of EPA/CEPA negotiations, Early realization of DFC project, Joint establishment of PDF for DMIC project, Collaboration in IIT Hyderabad, etc.

Cooperation on Regional and Global issues: Disarmament and Non-proliferation, Climate Change, UN Reform, WTO, Counter-Terrorism, etc.

Cooperation in Security Fields

Both countries have been conducting annual Foreign 0ffice Consultations at the Foreign Secretary level. The Security Dialogue between the two countries was set up in 2001 and six rounds of dialogue have been conducted since then. During the Indian Prime Minister's visit to Japan in 2008, "the Joint Statement on security cooperation between Japan and India" was issued. Furthermore, Action Plan to advance Security Cooperation based on the Joint Declaration on Security Cooperation between Japan and India was issued during the Japanese Prime Minister's visit to India in 2009. The Japan-India 2 + 2 Dialogue, which is the framework established based on the agreement by the Prime Ministers of both countries at the Annual Summit in December 2009, was held in New Delhi in July 2010.

High level exchange is continuing between the defense authorities. From Japan, General Masaki, Chief of Staff (September, 2005), Admiral Saito, Chief of Maritime SDF (February, 2006), General Mori, Chief of Ground SDF (March, 2006), and General Yoshida, Chief of Air SDF (April, 2006) visited India. From India, Admiral Prakash, Chief of Naval Staff, visited Japan in October, 2005. Defense Minister of India, Mr. Antony, visited Japan in November, 2009, and Joint Press Statement was issued to promote defense exchanges and cooperation. In April, 2009, Maritime SDF joined in the "Malabar 09" which was co-hosted by U.S. and India. Furthermore, four Indian navy vessels visited the port of Sasebo and the Maritime SDF's training squadrons visited the port of Goa in May 2009.

Source - Japan-India Relations: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan

Evolving India-Japan Relations and the Way Forward

Economic:

Bilateral India-Japan trade has begun to rise from $4.1 billion in 2001 to $10.36 billion in 2009-10. Bilateral India-Japan trade is targeted to cross only $20 billion by 2012.4

The CEPA agreement is quite comprehensive, as it includes market access, tariffs, trade in services, and investments. Also built into the agreement is

Japanese companies are partnering with India to build Metro Rail Services in cities like, Delhi, Kolkata, and Chennai. The Dedicated Freight Corridor project as well as the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor Project has also been launched with Japanese cooperation. The freight corridor is aimed at coping with the increasing demand for freight transport in India by constructing a new dedicated freight railway system, and improving and modernizing inter-nodal logistic system, which will promote comprehensive regional economic development along the freight corridor.

Strategic:

India and Japan are also extending their cooperation in the strategic and security sphere through bilateral and multilateral exercises, information sharing, training and dialogue, to promote their interests at regional and global level. For this both the countries signed a security cooperation agreement in 2008. Although the 2008 agreement does not sound very grand, its significance can be gauged from the fact that Japan has such a security pact with only two other countries – the United States and Australia. In the Japan’s National Defense Policy Guidelines (NDPG) 2010, India figures among the four countries/ regions with which Japan wants to enhance its security cooperation, the other countries/region being Republic of Korea, Australia, and ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), besides its traditional ally United States.

India and Japan face a realistic threat from an increasingly assertive China, and need to counterbalance China to protect their own interests. Such a condition propels both the countries to design a strategy of China’s containment, which would be in the larger interests of securing peace and stability in Asia

The Way Forward:

From Japan’s perspective it is not only necessary for Japan to hedge its stakes by investing in India, it makes sound economic sense to invest in India taking into account the increasing labour costs and near saturation of China’s market. Moreover, as a research report by Morgan Stanley had said that India could overtake China’s growth rate by 2013 and is expected to be notably ahead by 2015 onwards, this opens up huge scope for Japan.

Apart from increasing cooperation in the economic sector, the two countries need to enhance their cooperation in the political and strategic spheres to protect and promote their national interests, by curtailing conventional and non-conventional security threats, which they may face. For this their increasing cooperation with countries surrounding China and expanding maritime cooperation in the Indian Ocean and Southeast and East Asian region would be a welcome development. India and Japan can also become the pivot around which security interests of the Central, East, South, and Southeast Asian countries can be consolidated, which feel a very realistic threat from an increasing assertive China. For this Japan can provide India with military related technologies to connect with Central Asian region, and to enhance their maritime cooperation in the Indian Ocean region, by lifting the 1976 ban on exports of military related technologies.

India and Japan also need to develop their cooperation in the high technology sectors, such as space research, biotechnology, supercomputers, etc. as their joint efforts shall enable them to find solutions to various other problems plaguing the regional and global community.

In a nutshell, India and Japan’s failure to involve each other earlier let them lose significant opportunities to benefit each other in both economic and strategic spheres. However, the complementary nature of Indian and Japanese economy, and their converging security and political interests, make them “natural allies” with “common causes”, and therefore, mandatory partners in the long run.

Japan pledges to provide 2 trillion yen ($26.1 billion) in infrastructure construction support for linking Vietnam & Myanmar to improve trade with India

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