Diplomatic Mission of Japan
Manmohan Singh, Shinzo Abe hit it off, take aim at China (Jan 26, 2014)
PM Manmohan Singh and his visiting Japan counterpart Shinzo Abe agreed to further deepen the strategic and global partnership between the two countries as two democracies in Asia sharing universal values such as freedom, democracy and rule of law. Singh said Japan was at the heart of India’s Look East policy. The meeting saw Abe, who is the first Japanese PM to attend India’s Republic Day celebrations as chief guest, emphasize on the need for the two countries to contribute jointly to the peace, stability and prosperity of the region and the world taking into account changes in the strategic environment, as a joint statement issued after the meeting said. While China has so far refrained from making any adverse comment about Abe’s decision to accept India’s invitation to grace the Republic Day, Beijing’s likely response to Abe’s presence at the 26 January parade has been a subject of much speculation by international media. The Indian government has already clarified that
the Republic Day parade is as much civilian as it is military. The two countries signed as many as eight agreements including one for promotion of tourism and several others for Japanese soft loans and ODA to India. In a media statement after the talks, Singh expressed satisfaction over political engagement and expanding defence and security cooperation between India and Japan. In this context, Singh acknowledged the announcement of Japan’s National Security Strategy and the establishment of the national security council (NSC) of Japan. The two PMs expressed satisfaction with the launch of regular consultations between the secretary general of national security secretariat of Japan and India’s national security advisor. While welcoming Japan’s participation in the Malabar exercise and the meeting to discuss co-production of US-2 amphibian aircraft, Singh also noted that the discussion between the two countries for a civil nuclear agreement had gained momentum. Both sides directed their officials to exert further efforts towards an early conclusion of the agreement. Abe, however, stressed the importance of bringing into force the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) at an early date. Singh on his part reiterated India’s commitment to its unilateral and voluntary moratorium on nuclear explosive testing. The two PMs also reaffirmed their commitment to cooperate in the rare earths sector and shared “the strong resolution” that the commencement of commercial production of rare earths by Indian and Japanese enterprises should take place at the earliest. Abe reaffirmed that Japan would continue its official development assistance at a substantial level to encourage India’s efforts towards social and economic development. The two prime ministers welcomed the signing of the exchange of notes for yen loan totalling 11.390 billion yen for the “Uttarakhand Forest Resource Management Project” which would help reconstruction efforts in the wake of devastating floods that hit Uttarakhand in June last year, as well as the signing of the Exchange of Notes for grant aid totalling 1.495 billion yen for the Project for Improvement of the Institute of Child Health and Hospital for Children, Chennai. Prime Minister Singh also appreciated the pledge by Prime Minister Abe for the “Delhi Mass Rapid Transport System Project (Phase 3 (II))” for 148.887 billion yen, the “New and Renewable Energy Development Project (Phase II)” for 30 billion yen and the “Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Energy Saving Project (Phase III)” for 30 billion yen. Singh appreciated Japan’s high level of expertise and technology of high speed railway (Shinkansen) system and noted Japan’s interest in introducing that system in India.
With eye on China, India and Japan to bolster defence ties
With an eye firmly on China, India and Japan on Monday decided to consolidate and strengthen their strategic and global partnership in the defence arena through measures ranging from regular joint combat exercises and military exchanges to cooperation in antipiracy, maritime security and counter-terrorism. This came during the meeting between defence minister AK Antony and his visiting Japanese counterpart Itsunori Onodera. “The two ministers extensively and
frankly exchanged ideas regarding regional and global security challenges, as well as bilateral defence cooperation and exchanges. They shared views on issues relating to peace, stability and prosperity of the region,” said an official. Onodera also briefed Antony on Japan’s National Security Strategy and the National Defence Programme Guidelines, which were adopted in December 2013. Both India and Japan have long been wary of the increasingly assertive behaviour of China, especially in the contentious South China Sea, as well as the rapid modernisation of the People’s Liberation Army. India and Japan will hold their third “2 plus 2” Dialogue and fourth Defence Policy Dialogue in New Delhi this year, along with the third bilateral exercise between the Japan Maritime Self-Defence Force and Indian Navy to be held in Japanese waters. The Indian defence minister will also visit Japan later this year. The two ministers agreed to promote exchanges on UN Peacekeeping Operations between Japan Peacekeeping Training and Research Centre, Joint Staff College, Central Readiness Force of Japan Ground Self Defence Force and Centre for UN Peacekeeping of the Indian Army. The two sides will also conduct “expert exchanges” in counterterrorism, humanitarian assistance/ disaster relief between the Indian Army and Japan Ground Self Defence Force. The possibility of conducting staff talks between Japan Air SelfDefence Force and Indian Air Force as well as professional exchanges of test-pilots, flight safety experts and others are also on the cards.
Emperor Akihito’s visit shows shift in India-Japan relations
Japan’s Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko landed in India on Saturday on a six-day visit that marked a watershed in relations between the two countries which are seeking to build a strategic partnership on a strong economic foundation. In a sign of the kind of importance New Delhi attaches to the visit, the government decided that foreign minister Salman Khurshid should be the minister-inwaiting for the emperor who also visited Chennai. Coming as the visit does at a time when both India and Japan believe they have been at the receiving end of Beijing’s high-handedness, diplomatic sources were hard-pressed to convince media persons that there was no China angle in the emperor choosing to visit India. The fact is that such visits by the emperor, who has no administrative or government related power, are extremely rare and have in the past been used by Tokyo to signal or augment a shift in Japan’s foreign policy.
As sources revealed, it was the Japanese cabinet led by nationalist PM Shinzo Abe which advised the emperor to visit India. There was indeed an invitation from New Delhi but that had been pending for over 10 years. It was only after Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party assumed power after the December 2012 elections that there was a move to accept the invitation. According to Japan, such visits by the emperor are held on the advice received by the cabinet. There’s already a parallel being drawn with emperor Akihito’s historic visit to China in 1992 which cemented ties between the two countries. The resultant bonhomie — which also included a sharp increase in aid to China — lasted until the recent conflict between the two countries over Senkaku islands (called Diaoyu in China). Japanese sources though described any comparison with the 1992 China visit as a “bit overstretched”. “The visit has nothing to do with China but we do hope it will be a blessing for the warm relations the two countries already have and that it will upgrade the status of India in the Japanese psyche,” said an official. It is interesting that Abe’s cabinet advised the emperor to visit India as the Japanese PM in the past has often indicated how strongly he wants to build a strategic partnership with India. During his short tenure as PM in 2006, Abe declared that India-Japan ties had the potential to overtake even Japan-US relations. Again, during his visit to India in 2011, Abe told a gathering at the ICWA that “India’s success is in Japan’s best interests and Japan’s success is in the best interests of India”. India too has shown signs of playing along with Japan. When he felt hard done by this year in Ladakh, where Chinese troops remained stationed on the Indian side of the LAC for weeks, PM Manmohan Singh chose to get his own back by extending his visit to Tokyo by a day in May.
India, Japan in $50 billion currency swap
The rupee surged 87 paise on Friday after Japan extended support to India’s fight against currency volatility by agreeing to more than treble the scope of the bilateral swap arrangement to $50 billion. The facility between the Reserve Bank of India and the Bank of Japan enables both countries to swap Japanese yen or the Indian rupee for US dollars in an unforeseen situation. It is essentially an arrangement to tide over shortterm foreign exchange crunch. The deal was first signed in 2008 and was limited to $3 billion, but the size was increased to $15 billion when the arrangement was renewed in 2011. The rupee opened at 66 up from its previous close of 66.12 against the dollar and gained during the day to close at 65.25 against the dollar. “The swap arrangement with Japan was a positive factor for the rupee. This supplements RBI’s earlier measures whereby it has agreed to swap dollars raised by banks through long-term non-resident deposits and borrowings at 350 basis points,” said Ashish Vaidya, head of fixed income, currencies and commodities, at UBS India. He added that these measures under which RBI borrows dollars will complement its swap facility with oil companies where it lends dollars. “The two governments expect that this will contribute to the stability of global financial markets, including emerging economies,” India and Japan said in a joint statement after a meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Japanese deputy PM Taro Aso on the sidelines of the G-20 summit. Forex dealers said that the tide appears to have turned for the rupee and this could result in unwinding of long dollar positions. But uncertainty continues to hang over the market in respect of the situation in Syria and the outcome of the meeting of the US Federal Reserve on September 17. “A reduction in the Fed’s bond buyback has already been factored in. The question now is how much?” said a dealer. Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, however, reiterated that India has “adequate” foreign exchange reserves to defend its currency and ruled out taking any external assistance unless there is a “radical” change in the situation. “With $280 billion in reserves, I don’t think we will be drawing on currency swap arrangements unless there is a radical change in the situation,” he said. The latest deal with Japan comes a day after BRICS members - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - agreed on a $100 billion currency swap facility. Emerging market currencies, such as the Brazilian real, the rupee and the South African rand have been hit hard by the volatility in currency markets. The fear of a withdrawal of the stimulus by the US Federal Reserve has resulted in outflow of dollars from these countries with the poor economic performance in countries such as India adding to the pressure. Through the swap arrangements, the government is trying to send a message to the markets that apart from the large foreign exchange reserves, of a little under $280 billion, it has arrangements to deal with a flight of funds.