Relevance: GS Paper II (International Relations)
Theme of the article
Japan must adopt an independent approach in the Indo-Pacific that is more amenable to partners like India.
Introduction
Twenty years after exchanging bitter words following New Delhi’s nuclear tests, India-Japan ties exude exceptional warmth. From development assistance to maritime cooperation, both countries view each other as “special strategic and global partners.”
The roadblocks in Indo-Japan ties
- In 2011, India and Japan began implementing the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement; yet seven years later, bilateral trade has yet to hit even the $20 billion mark.
- India’s exports to Japan have contracted in four of the past six years.
- Since early 2010, Japan and India have discussed joint infrastructure projects in third countries, including announcing an Asia-Africa Growth Corridor. But not a single project has taken off.
- The largest gap between form and substance is evident in the area of defence cooperation. The two sides have failed to realise the sale of a single defence article and there exists no conventional threat-specific contingency scenario in which the two militaries can practicably cooperate.
Way forward
- India and Japan must grapple with the gulf that separates their guiding strategic precepts if they are to transcend the hollow institutionalisation that infects strategic ties.
- Japan has never been able to successfully postulate an order beyond a Western-led alliance framework. It must adopt a more independent-minded approach in the Indo-Pacific that is less attached to the West and more amenable to partners like India.
