With economics as the bedrock of a growing partnership, India and Japan are ready to move to the next level. When Japanese Premier Shinzo Abe meets Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday, the two sides are likely to kick off a top-level political-security dialogue between the two national security advisers, Shivshankar Menon and Shotaro Yachi.
Coming on the heels of the visit of the Japanese Emperor and Empress in December, the Abe visit will send a whole new set of signals to many in Asia and beyond – particularly the elephant in the room, China. Abe will not only be the first Japanese prime minister to be India\’s Republic Day chief guest, his presence at India\’s annual civil-military parade, an integral part of Indian life, will signal that the a pacifist Japan can be comfortable with a show of military strength.
The two sides are expected to announce more maritime exercises even though there will be no agreement on civil nuclear energy. Discussions on that have been stuck on non-proliferation commitments, finding a happy medium between the Japanese and Indian positions. India and Japan have started negotiations for the purchase of Japan\’s amphibian aircraft, US-2, which Japan plans to sell to India as a civilian aircraft, though it has military uses as well. The first set of discussions took place in the end of December, a second meeting is scheduled in the coming weeks.
The stepping up of defence and security cooperation between India and Japan has increased even as Japan\’s relationship with China and South Korea has plummeted in recent months. In what is being seen as an unprecedented war of words, Chinese and Japanese envoys around the world are waging a battle on the op-ed columns of newspapers regarding bilateral tensions on the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands.
via Shinzo Abe’s visit a signal to China, others – The Times of India.
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