A stronger economic and security partnership with Japan provides an interesting context for the PM’s next stop in Beijing. While India and Japan have no reason to premise their cooperation on opposition to a third party, a neuralgic China is likely to see it in terms of an Asian realignment. Beijing has watched the India-Japan rapprochement with as much wariness as it did the transformation of the Indo-US relationship.

India, meanwhile, is deeply disappointed at the turn its relationship with China has taken. Hopes had soared in April 2005, when Dr Singh and Premier Wen announced a new framework for the resolution of the boundary dispute. Since then, stalled talks and Chinese opposition at the NSG dredged up New Delhi’s old suspicions about Beijing’s intentions. Pakistan’s claims following President Zardari’s visit to Beijing last week that China has agreed to sell it two nuclear reactors have not helped.

Beijing itself has not publicly confirmed this decision. And the international legal basis for new Sino-Pakistani nuclear cooperation remains unclear. If there is some truth in Pakistan’s official claims, New Delhi might have to conclude that Beijing wants to sustain nuclear parity between India and Pakistan in the wake of the Indo-US nuclear deal.

That in turn brings us to a final contrast between the approaches of China and Japan. While Beijing might want to keep playing Pakistan against India, Tokyo could choose an entirely different course. As a major aid donor to Islamabad, Kabul and New Delhi, Japan has every reason to promote regional integration between India, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

... contd.