DEEPENING

Is the China factor driving Japan and India to push for closer cooperation?

WHATEVER his other feats and failures, Narendra Modi can be a great host. He never forgot that when, as Gujarat state’s chief minister, he was under an adverse international gaze after the 2002 sectarian violence, and Japan was the only major power that had welcomed him.

Now, as India’s prime minister, he returned the gesture on Sept 13 and 14. Although they had met thrice before, he received with aplomb Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and wife, Akie, dressing them up in Indian attire, and in Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar, the state capital, similarly dressed Deepavali-style.

Bunting and lights decorated the streets, and dancers and musicians performed all along an 8km route, where he rode with his guests in an open jeep instead of in bullet-proof cars.

Coinciding with Abe’s 67th birthday, the occasion was, of course, an encore in Modi’s “birthday diplomacy”.

He had similarly hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping on the latter’s birthday in 2014, benignly watching the first Chinese couple sit on a swing and smile.

Those smiles have since vanished amidst numerous IndiaChina diplomatic irritants and a 73-day military face-off in the Himalayas.

The replacement of the Jinpings with the Abes is more than symbolic. Japan was the only major Asian power to support India during that crisis. Even without these misgivings with China, India has been wooing Japan for long.

A known Japan admirer, Modi’s predecessor, Manmohan Singh, was in Tokyo twice. Modi is pursuing almost all of his cooperation proposals that have been under prolonged discussion.

Modi has, however, reversed India’s stand from Manmohan’s on the high-speed rail, popularly called Bullet Train.

Although coveted, it was downgraded to clinch Japan’s more urgently required and lasting infrastructure proposals.