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Out of the ordinary
Seeking a bold regime change in Japan, Hatoyama has put himself in the middle of many simultaneous battles at home: to win support for the first budget of his government; tame the power of the all-powerful bureaucracy, redefine the terms of the post-war alliance with the United States, and hold together a volatile political coalition that ousted last August the Liberal Democratic Party from power after decades of near uninterrupted rule.
Yet, Hatoyama has chosen to travel to India and signal the continued political commitment of the new Japanese government to the strategic partnership with Delhi. It is India’s turn then to roll out the red carpet for Hatoyama and find ways to work with him in building another Asia that is in tune with the Japanese and Indian aspirations.
Since 2005, the Indian and Japanese prime ministers have been visiting each other’s capitals every year. Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh travelled to Tokyo at the end of 2006 and 2008; and Prime Ministers Junichiro Koizumi and Shinzo Abe came to India in 2005 and 2007. This sustained high-level contact during the last few years has helped impart momentum to one of the most underdeveloped relations among Asia’s major powers.
It might be tempting for Delhi to focus on a laundry list that presents itself during Hatoyama’s visit finalise the framework for Tokyo’s financing of the Delhi-Mumbai freight and industrial corridors; push forward the bilateral talks on trade liberalisation; deepen political and security cooperation; and work together to stabilise Afghanistan, promote global
nuclear arms control, and mitigate climate change.
All these are important issues that Delhi and Tokyo must
address. If Dr Singh limits himself to the routine, he will miss a major opportunity to transform the quality of Delhi’s political conversation with Tokyo. Dr Singh, instead, must unambiguously frame, in private and in public, three important Indian propositions on the great changes that Japan is contemplating today.
One, it is certainly not India’s business to tell Japan how to reorganise the relations between its different political institutions at home or rework the premises of its foreign policy. What Delhi needs to signal at this moment is strong political empathy with the Japanese people as they navigate an extraordinary transition.
Two, there is a profound anxiety in Tokyo as the Japanese population ages, its economy stagnates, and Beijing overtakes it as the number one power in Asia. India must publicly express its confidence in the resilience of the Japanese people and their ability to overcome the current difficulties.
For all its troubles, Japan will remain one of the world’s largest economies for a long time to come. Japan’s reputation as a leading centre of technological innovation in the world too is unlikely to be contested in the near future.
Third, India must affirm that a strong Japan exercising a leading role in Asia is welcome. Unlike many other Asian countries in Asia, India has not sought unending apologies from Japan for its imperial past. More than 60 years after World War II, it is time that Asia looked to the future than the past.
During Hatoyama’s visit, Delhi must strongly endorse the essence of his main foreign policy initiative — to build an Asian economic and political community. Given the widespread questions on how exactly Tokyo’s new rulers want to go about the task of integrating Asia, especially in the US and China, Delhi would be all ears. From the Indian perspective,
Dr Singh would surely underline the convergence of interests with Japan in promoting an open and inclusive economic and security architecture for a multipolar Asia.
As India and Japan find ways to work together to secure the future of Asia, whose tectonic plates are rumbling ominously, they might want to commemorate the vision of two men who were the first to promote the notion of Asian unity.
One was Rabindranath Tagore and the other was Japanese art curator Okakura Kakuzo, whose interaction in the early years of the last century laid the foundation for the intellectual construction of modern Asia.
As it happens, their 150th birth anniversaries fall in 2011 and 2012 respectively. What better way is there for Dr Singh and Hatoyama to affirm their shared commitment to build a new Asia than establish a joint research institute on Asian affairs that is named after these two gentlemen?
The writer is the Henry A. Kissinger Chair in Foreign Policy and International Relations at the Library of Congress, Washington DC
express@expressindia.com
Reader's Comments(4) | Post a comment
The 3 propositions viz. 1) SIGNAL strong political empathy with the Japanese people. 2) EXPRESS confidence in the resilience of the Japanese people 3) AFFIRM and welcome a strong Japan exercise a leading role in Asia. Seems all too woolly and fluffy. The only tangible suggestion is in the last line of the article i.e. "establish a joint research institute on Asian affairs". I must admit being disappointed at this conclusion. What about mutually and/or reciprocally beneficial projects in the fields of: Renewable Energy and Infrastructure; Provision of Geriatric medicine and Care; Indians getting technical education in Japanese and the Japanese learning languages e.g. English, Hindi; Indians learning from/about Japanese culture (importance of sanitation, cleanliness and hygiene) and the Japanese learning about spirituality, Yoga, Buddhism and vegetarianism etc.
The integration of Asian countries should begin from the bottom and not from the top. There should be a United Nations of Asia with equal right to vote. In such an organization no country will be supreme. All countries of Asia will work for the security and economic prosperity of the Asian region. The UNA will represent Asia in the UN (reformed UN). Only such an arrangement can work for the peace and prosperity of Asia and the world.
While the concept of Asian unity by the new Japanese leadership is sound, who will lead Asia is a problem. Absence of leadership in Asia has led to the US and Europe dominating the West and South West Asian geographic sphere with military presence in different forms in the seas as well as on land in Afghanistan. On the other hand the presence of the US in South East Asia continues. Who will lead a new unified Asia, there are not many hopes of China or even Japan leading the same. While Beijing does not have the world vision and instruments of power other than economic aid and assistance, the continuing deep reservations of the Japanese in many parts of Asia particularly South East Asia will prevent Japan from rising above the largest donor perch in Asia. Besides new concerns about inner political changes in Japan cannot be ignored as indicated by Dr Raja Mohan. Under the circumstances India will have to continue to sustain its national interest through bilateral multi lateralism
here are some suggestions: 1.Establish / expand the scope of chairs in Indian and japanese universities for the study of Buddhist and hindu philosophy; Expand Buddhist centers in india for tourism. 2.establish / expand an Indo-Japan chamber of commerce to expand trade and industrial collaborations; Initiate most favored nation tariffs for select items. 3.Identify major areas of technological/ industrial collaboration; Examples- Solar energy and biomass utilisation, clean coal technologies,deep sea fishing, digital electronics, IT industry, robotics etc. 4.Involve japanese and indian industries in computer networking of various central and state govt organisations for delivering good governance in india. Paul Ratnasamy