India’s rising profile in the extended neighbourhood stretching from Africa to East Asia through the Persian Gulf, Central Asia and Southeast Asia has been equally significant. India is also actively seeking to reintegrate its periphery with the framework of regional cooperation.

Despite the rapid transformation of their foreign policies, Japan and India have run into a new political barrier, China. Barring left-wing ideologues, few have difficulty in recognising the fact that China does not want other powers to rise in Asia. It was equally predictable that China would do its utmost to prevent Japan and India from gaining permanent seats in the United Nations Security Council. Nor is it shocking that China is the only nuclear weapon power that opposes the Indo-US nuclear deal.

China’s clout to limit the political aspirations of India and Japan is not limited to the international domain. Beijing has been adept at leveraging domestic lobby groups in both countries to prevent outcomes it considers unacceptable.

Thanks to the CPM, China does not have to wait for the International Atomic Energy Agency or Nuclear Suppliers Group to kill the nuclear deal. It has got the Indian communists to demand the deal never go before either grouping.

Neither Japan nor India has a desire to contain China. Japan is today China’s largest trading partner and has a complex but intimate relationship with its neighbour. New Delhi’s relations with Beijing have been better than ever before.

Yet a much larger challenge confronts Tokyo and New Delhi. Will they accept a subordinate status in a Sino-centric order that has begun to emerge in Asia? Or will Tokyo and New Delhi persist with the construction of a multipolar Asia in the face of Chinese resistance at home and abroad?

... contd.