More to bond over than bullet trains
Malabar series are helping the two countries to build familiarity and comfort between their respective forces. Maritime security is one area where there are compelling reasons for India and Japan to work together and to reach out to South East Asian countries. Without their more active role in the region we may well end up, by default, with a Chinese-dominated security architecture.
Abe’s visit takes place under the shadow of two important developments in the region. For India, there has been the potentially dangerous confrontation between Indian and Chinese forces in Bhutan’s Doklam plateau. While this has been defused for the present it has served to underscore India’s vulnerability to pressures from an ascendant China. Japan, too, has been facing such pressures and now has the added threat of a nuclear armed North Korea. It is unlikely that North Korea’s nuclear weapon and missile delivery capability can be reversed though the US continues to provide a nuclear umbrella to Japan under its bilateral defence alliance. If there appears to be any doubt about the US commitment then there may be great pressure on Japan to acquire its own nuclear deterrent. It has recently been announced that Japan will reopen its Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant next year and this will make available additional fissile material to Japan. If Japan decides to go nuclear in the face of the grave security threat it confronts, what will India’s reaction be? These are questions which could become unavoidable. For this reason, too, the two sides need to engage in serious conversations .
India-Japan relations have not yet acquired the balance and density which a true partnership demands. There is more progress in their security relations, less in their economic and commercial relations. Their bilateral trade, at US$15 billion, continues to languish and has even declined over the past two years. It is only a quarter of India-China trade. Japanese investment has increased but Japan is only the third largest investor in India. We have not seen the kind of large scale and sustained Japanese investment which played such an important role in accelerating growth in China in its post-reform period after 1980. Despite strong cultural affinities, people-topeople relations remain thin and student exchanges have remained modest year after year. It is these areas which need serious reflection and remedy.