New Delhi: To take forward a “converging” vision on the Indo-Pacific region, Japan is eager collaborate on “concrete” infrastructure projects with India, which is likely to be a key takeaway from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s forthcoming visit to Tokyo.
Modi will be visiting Japan on October 28-29 on the invitation his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe for the annual summit. This will be his third trip to the country in his tenure as prime minister.
The 2017 bilateral summit’s joint statement had a running theme of a ‘Free, Open and Prosperous Indo-Pacific’. This year, the focus will be on getting a project off the ground in a third country.
“They (Modi and Abe) will continue to discuss their vision on Indo-Pacific. How they can collaborate in concrete terms and not only talking of vision itself,” said Japanese ambassador to India Kenji Hiramatsu at a interaction organised by think tank Brookings India.
The last bilateral summit had been held in September 2017 in Gandhinagar, where both sides had endorsed an Indo-Pacific region where “sovereignty and international law are respected, and differences are resolved through dialogue, and where all countries, large or small, enjoy freedom of navigation and overflight, sustainable development, and a free, fair, and open trade and investment system”.
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A year later, it is clear that Japan wants a bit more than just an articulation of a vision.
“We are converging on our Indo-Pacific vision… (but now) we are trying to have a more concrete project implemented between India and Japan,” he said.
Speaking of “convergence” of vision on the Indo-Pacific, the Japanese ambassador’s remarks on the placement of the ‘Quad’ was also in line with the Indian position that it should not be the single representative of the Indo-Pacific.
“This Quad is not the sole mechanism of promoting our idea of Indo-Pacific vision, which of course emphasises ASEAN centrality,” he added.
Hiramatsu also indicated that the countries’ defence relationship will get special attention during the visit, with a review of the discussions on agreements on maritime domain awareness and logistics support. “It is high time to have this mutual logistics support,” said Hirmatsu.
“We know the Indian government is interested in Japanese submarines. We are in the process of discussions between the Japanese government and the private sector. We haven’t come up with any kind of decision on the cooperation with regard to the possibility of collaborating with India with regard to submarine development. So at this particular time we cannot say what we can do with regard to collaboration in submarine sector.”
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With regard to the sale of US-2 amphibious aircraft, he said that the “discussion is ongoing and hope that progress is made”.
When asked why Japan did not offer its Soryu class submarines in the tender for the Indian navy’s six new attack submarines, Hiramatsu stated that he was aware of interest from the Indian government in Japanese submarines, but internal discussions were not complete.
“We are in the process of discussions between the Japanese government and private sector. We haven’t come up with any kind of decision on cooperation with regard to the possibility of collaborating with India on submarine development. So at this particular time we cannot say what we can do with regard to collaboration in the submarine sector,” he added.
The cultivated closeness between India and Japan, which began during the UPA government and was continued by Modi, is also perceived as a consequence of the rise of China and its muscular foreign policy in the region.
The spotlight on the Indo-Pacific – with its accompanying focus on freedom of navigation and overflight – is therefore viewed in China as a response to the disputed South China Sea.
Interestingly, a day before Abe will be hosting Modi in Tokyo, he will be in Beijing for the first bilateral meeting in seven years.
Both China and Japan have an uncertain relationship with Washington under President Donald Trump, therefore a closer economic relationship would be mutually beneficial.
“Prime Minister Abe will visit China from 25 to 27 – just one day before prime minister’s visit to Japan. He will talk about cooperation with China in business sectors, based on principles,” he said.
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His reference to ‘principles’ was in the context of Japan’s position on China’s Belt and Road Initiative. “Our position is that we really hope that the Belt and Road Initiative will contribute to peace and prosperity in the region by incorporating international standards including…transparency, viability, fiscal soundness for the receiving country,” added Hiramatsu.
Even while India and Japan seem to have a similar view on the BRI, Japan is still ready to discuss the possibility of collaboration with China. In fact, Japan had attended the BRI Summit in Beijing in 2017, which was boycotted by India.
The Japanese ambassador also said that while his country was eager to have joint venture projects in third countries, collaboration in northeast India was a top priority.
“Not only Indo-Pacific, we are very keen to support the northeast…we identified some of the infrastructure projects, including road development projects. We have already started some road improvement projects in NH-51, NH-40 in Meghalaya and NH-54 in Mizoram.”
He added that they were “now exploring” development of a road from the Assam-Bhutan border to Meghalaya’s border with Bangladesh.
At the opposite end of India, the ambitious bullet train project between Mumbai and Ahmedabad has been plagued by land acquisition woes.
Describing the ‘Shinkansen’ project as a “very symbolic project” between India and Japan, Hiramatsu said that there was “100% trust in India to complete the high-speed railway project”.
“We are hoping that the Indian government, the state government and National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited will find a way to ensure this land acquisition issue is amicably and satisfactorily resolved,” he stated.