Page 1 of
2 'Confluence of the two
seas' By Purnendra Jain
ADELAIDE - Once characterized by a low-key
bilateral relationship with India, Japan today
shows an extraordinary interest in the South Asian
country, and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's three-day
visit to New Delhi this week signifies this most
strongly.
Abe is the third successive
Japanese prime minister, following Yoshiro Mori
and Junichiro Koizumi, to visit India. India is
now the
only
country in the world with which Japan will conduct
talks at the prime-minister level annually,
starting this year with Abe's visit.
Despite political uncertainties including
his own future as prime minister resulting from
his party's dismal performance at the House of
Councilors (Upper House) elections last month, Abe
stuck to his foreign-visitation schedule and made
a week-long trip to three Asian nations -
Indonesia, India and Malaysia - beginning on
August 19.
In Indonesia, he signed a
bilateral free-trade agreement, making it the
sixth Southeast Asian country after Singapore,
Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Brunei to
have an FTA with Japan. Indonesia is the largest
supplier of liquefied natural gas to Japan, and in
an environment where there is a strategic race for
energy security, Japan has secured supplies
through this agreement. In return, Japan will
provide liberal access to a range of Indonesian
products, including farm produce - rice exempted -
into its market. After India, Abe was
scheduled to visit Malaysia, where he is to meet
with his Malaysian counterpart and is expected to
sign a joint statement promoting bilateral
cooperation in areas ranging from security to
environmental issues.
The most important
visit on his Asian tour was that to India, a
country that for long remained on the periphery of
Japan's Asia vision. But the old vision has
changed significantly and swiftly, and further
change is on its way as Tokyo is keen to engage
India in a comprehensive way. Calling it a
"paradigm shift", Japanese Ambassador to India
Yasukuni Enoki stated that within the framework of
Japan's Asian diplomacy, now "the Japan-India
partnership is the most important".
After
World War II, India long aspired to be in Japan's
close company. Close interactions between the two
occurred immediately after the war, but soon the
nations drifted apart because of Cold War
politics. Japan became a close ally of the United
States, while India chose to be with the
Non-Aligned Movement, though with a clear tilt
toward the Soviet Union. India sought Japan's
understanding in times of political distress, such
as the Sino-Indian border war in 1962 and wars
with Pakistan. But Japan preferred to be neutral
on such occasions, which frustrated Delhi.
When India sought trade and investment
from a rich and economically robust Japan,
especially in the 1980s and early 1990s, most
Japanese businesses were focused on China, and
India mattered little for them. For them, India
was distant. The image of India being a poor
country with ethnic violence, domestic political
turmoil and conflict with neighboring states
remained strong, distracting Japan from India.
Even though Delhi was disappointed with
Tokyo's low priority for India, they remained good
friends. There was no bitterness in the
relationship until India's 1998 nuclear testing
that soured the already weak relationship as Tokyo
imposed severe sanctions on Delhi and criticized
its nuclear act at every possible international
forum, including the United Nations.
Although it was Mori who opened a new
chapter in the bilateral relationship through his
visit to India in 2000 and Koizumi expressed great
interest in the country, Abe can be regarded by
far as the most India-enthusiastic Japanese prime
minister in trying to build multi-layered bridges
between Tokyo and Delhi. Even before he became
prime minister, he recognized the importance of
India in his book Towards a Beautiful Country:
A Confident and Proud Japan in light of the
new geostrategic environment in the region. China
looms large in Japan's strategic calculations and
India - the world's second-most-populous nation,
which is set to grow economically - is easily seen
in a balancer role.
For India, too, Japan
has remained a country of great interest. There
prevails huge goodwill in India for Japan, and
India is excited about its long-awaited closer
ties with Japan. Unlike many other Asian countries
that often express concern arising out of Japan's
wartime behavior, India carries no such historical
baggage.
Bar the 1998 nuclear incident,
there have not been any major points of
disagreement or concern between India and Japan.
It is for this reason that Abe was given the honor
to address a joint session of the Indian
Parliament - a privilege accorded to only a select
few visiting dignitaries. Despite India's closer
and ever improving relations with the United
States and China in recent years, their visiting
leaders George W Bush and Hu Jintao, respectively,
did not get this honor because of opposition in
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