Sunday, 13 Oct, 2024
By: Anshul Vipat
Narendra Modi and Shinzo Abe took India-Japan relations to new heights and brought both the democracies closer
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in Japan today to attend the funeral of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Scion of a political family who went on to become Japan's youngest premier, Abe was killed on 8 July while campaigning for elections for Japan's upper house.
Abe who is often termed as the "best Japan's prime minister India would have wished for", was instrumental in bringing the two democracies closer. It was during his tenure that India-Japan relationship hit the peak. Modi, who had often termed Abe as his "dear friend" had expressed sarrow over Abe's death. He had even penned a note for him. India had announced a day of mourning as an respect towards the former Japanese prime minister.
India was placed at the centre of this vision
Abe was no stranger to India. He was three-years-old when he had first visited India with his grandfather Nobusuke Kishi, the first Japanese prime minister to visit independent India. During his first visit to India as prime minister in 2007, Abe had addressed the parliament and gave his famous “confluence of the two seas” speech laying the foundation for his concept of Indo-Pacific. This concept has now become mainstream and one of the main pillars of India-Japan ties.
It was during his stint that New Delhi and Tokyo signed the historic civil nuclear agreement, under which Japan will supply nuclear reactors, fuel, and technology to India. India is not a signatory to the non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and is the only non-signatory to receive an exemption from Japan. He was also instrumental in rebirth of the QUAD alliance.
Abe also enjoyed a special rapport with PM Narendra Modi. Apart from regular visits, the two leaders upgraded India-Japan ties to ‘Special Strategic and Global Partnership’, collaborating on civilian nuclear energy to maritime security, bullet trains to quality infrastructure, Act East policy to Indo-Pacific strategy. More recent illustrations of this cooperation are—the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail, the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC), the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor with twelve industrial townships, the Chennai-Bengaluru Industrial Corridor (CBIC) etc.
As Modi bids adieu to Abe, India Tracker takes a look at the past, present and the future of India-Japan relations.
The growing India-Japan partnership
Both the countries are celebrating 70 years of diplomatic relationships. Bilateral relations between India and Japan is a multifaceted affair raging from defense partnership to technology. In the past two decades, relationship between the countries has been phenomenal.
As the accompanying chart shows the trade between the two countries has increased multifold in the past years. Bilateral trade between India and Japan increased from 740 billion yen ($7.023 billion) in 2007 to 1,783 billion yen ($172.8 billion) in 2019 – a rise of 135%. Further, Japanese investment in India grew from 29.8 billion yen ($2.8 billion) in 2005 to 624 billion yen ($45.8 billion) during the same period. As of 2021, close to 1500 Japanese companies are engaged in economics activities in India.
Apart from strategic investments, Japan is also a major partner in a number of infrastructure projects in the country. More recent illustrations of this cooperation are—the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail, the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC), the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor with twelve industrial townships, the Chennai-Bengaluru Industrial Corridor (CBIC) etc. Apart form this, both the countries are looking to modernise infrastructure, improve public health, and promote the development of critical emerging and green technologies.
How India and Japan can unite to counter Chinese influence
Both the countries are concerned by the growing influence of China on the region. While India is locked in a military conflict with Beijing since 2020, Japan's relationship with China is strained due to territorial disputes in East China Sea. Beijing's agression against Taiwan is also concerning Tokyo. Some of the recent joint Indo-Japanese undertakings have been seen as aimed at countering growing Chinese influence in South Asia.
