After decades of neglecting each other, India and Japan announced their intent to build a strategic partnership in April 2005. Annual summits since then have sought to lend some substance to this proclaimed goal. Three broad themes stood out: first, the decision by Japan to build the ambitious Delhi-Mumbai Freight Corridor to speed up the movement of goods between the two cities. The two sides also agreed to develop modern manufacturing industry along the 1468-km route. Bureaucratic delays in both capitals cast a shadow over this, the single-largest infrastructure project that India has ever undertaken. Dr Singh, however, has been determined to move it along and his Japanese counterpart, Taro Aso, has been equally keen on promoting this transformational project. During Dr Singh’s visit, Japan is expected to announce a $4.5 billion loan to kick-start the project. A second theme has been the trade liberalisation. Given the inherent difficulty of negotiating free trade agreements, it is not a surprise that the talks on the Enhanced Partnership Agreement have remained inconclusive.

While they renew their political commitment to bring the EPA to an early fruition, Dr Singh and Aso would also want to consolidate the third new dimension of the bilateral relationship — security cooperation. They are expected to unveil a broad new framework that will identify the elements of such cooperation: ranging from counter-terrorism to the protection of sea lanes, from expanded engagement between the two militaries to the identification of joint missions to promote cooperative security in the Indian Ocean and Asia Pacific.

... contd.