In international affairs, there are very few friends. Well, the rule of the diplomatic jungle is ‘cooperate to survive’. So, cooperation becomes a sort of imposed virtue. However, there are some bilateral relations which can be termed as very close to friendship. India-Japan Alliance is one such bond.
PM Modi in Japan
Recently, PM Modi was in Japan, primarily to attend the all-important QUAD summit, 2022. But, strengthening QUAD was not the only agenda on PM Modi’s mind. On the sidelines of the summit, PM Modi also sat for a 70-minute discussion with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. Late in the evening, both heads of state also gathered for a 50-minute dinner meeting.
Both leaders expressed their willingness to strengthen the Japan-India Special Strategic and Global Partnership. The Japanese PM reiterated Japan’s commitment to investing 5 trillion Yen in the form of public and private investments in India within the next 5 years. Both countries will also be collaborating in making the world free of polluted energy. To enhance strategic and defence partnership, the second Japan-India Foreign Ministers and Defense Ministers meeting (2+2) will be preponed this year.
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India and Japan are civilisational friends
If honed properly, only sky is the limit for India and Japan partnership. Throughout civilisational history, the relation between both countries has always been co-operational. The maritime relations between both countries are probably older than the Gregorian calendar can count without going into the Before Christ (BC) era. The documented history of collaboration between both civilisations dates back to 752AD when Bodhisena visited Japan.
Owing to the fact that the Japanese preferred inertness and did not prefer much contact with the outside world, the relationship between both civilisational states remained positively stagnant till the middle of the 19th century. As soon as Japan opened its gates to the outside world and the ‘west model of modernity’, both countries witnessed a rapid acceleration in friendship. Swami Vivekanand, Nobel Laureate Rabindra Nath Tagore, industrialist JRD Tata and legend Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose helped strengthen the bond between both countries. Japan even catalysed the rise of Azad Hind Fauj.
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India and Japan maintained cordial set-up after India’s independence
After India’s independence, both countries took a radically constructive shift in their approach towards each other. Like, we gained independence, our country also wanted to establish a relationship with sovereign Japan. India did not attend the San Francisco treaty (ending the occupation of Japan by the US and its allies) but concluded a separate peace treaty with sovereign Japan. Attending the San Francisco conference would mean that India would be undermining Japan’s sovereignty. This was a defining moment as India effectively communicated to Japanese authorities that it won’t allow other countries to impact the bilateral setup.
After the San Francisco treaty, Japan started to rebuild itself from scratch and brought in some fundamental changes in its landholding pattern, some of which were replicated in India in the form of the ending of the Zamindari Raj. Japan did not waste time and virtually occupied a particular generation in backbreaking work to re-establish the country’s legacy. Soon, it became a trade surplus nation and the most powerful economy in Asia. The change was rapid as it happened within the span of a single generation.
Meanwhile, Indian leaders were also busy laying out a roadmap for India. For the next 30 years, respective heads of state reciprocated each other’s gestures. The loyalty of decades-long friendship was established in 1991 when Japan became one of the few countries to offer a bailout to India out of the Balance of Payment crisis.
PM Vajpayee changed things around
But, until PM Vajpayee Ji arrived, the cooperation did not witness a revolutionary change. During his tenure, Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori visited India in 2000. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) summarises this visit in the following words, “The visit led to a significant and qualitative shift in India-Japan relations with the establishment of the ‘Global Partnership’ between the two sides.”
In December 2001, PM Vajpayee also visited Japan. During the visit, both countries issued the “Japan-India Joint Declaration” which became the foundation of modern-day economic engagement between both countries. Since Japan had become a country with excess money and it did not need much capital investment in its own infrastructure, India was going to prove a vital ally for parking its money.
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Economic cooperation between both countries-One of its kind
Over the next 19 years, Japan became the third-largest investor in India with a total investment of $ 30.27 billion. Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) proved to be one of the biggest financiers of Delhi Metro and provided low-cost loans to the big-ticket infrastructure project, the first of its kind in India. If not for Japanese loans, it would have been cumbersome for India’s capital to get such an efficient and disciplined transport system. Later, Japan came forward with the loan and technical assistance for PM Modi’s dream project of a Bullet train between Ahmedabad and Mumbai. The interest rate on Yen 12 billion loan is 0.1 per cent.
Not just on an institutional level, Japan’s corporate sector has also invested in India’s growth story. Yamaha, Sony, Toyota, and Honda are one of the earliest and biggest Japanese behemoths who have established manufacturing facilities in India. India has also paid back Japan with Indian engineers becoming the backbone of modern-day Japan’s IT sector. The youngest country in the world (India) is ever ready to provide more efficient employees to Japan.
Strategic partnership-An unchartered territory
Despite so much bonhomie, there is still an area of bilateral relations between both countries which can be termed as an uncharted territory. India and Japan are yet to fulfil their potential in strategic cooperation. In the wake of Japan dissociating itself from its dependence on the USA, Land of the Rising Sun is looking for a partner which has its own independent diplomatic stand and at the same time is not predatory like China.
India becomes the natural choice for Japan. Both countries have started to showcase their hobnobbing to the world as well. India and Japan have shared visions for maintaining the security of sea lanes in the Indo-Pacific region. India and Japan conduct a bilateral military exercise called DHARMA GUARDIAN. Similarly, when the USA and Australia join both countries, then the exercise is termed as Malabar Exercise. All four countries are heavily invested in QUAD as well.
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To sum it all up, Japan has technical strengths and manufacturing capacities and India has a large market to consume those goods and services. Japan is capital-rich and resource-scarce while we are resource-rich and capital scarce. Japan has soft power and India has the second-largest standing Army and is among the most powerful countries in the world militarily.
One lacks what the other has. There is a huge scope for a symbiotic setup between both countries. If harnessed well on the strategic front, they are going to define the Asian century.