The visit of the Japanese foreign minister, Yoriko Kawaguchi, to India on Tuesday is only another indication of deepening Indo-Japan relations. Bilateral ties have steadily improved since the early 1990s in spite of the hiccup caused by the nuclear tests of 1998. In October 2001, Japan lifted the sanctions imposed by it after the tests. But contact and relations between the two nations has continued to grow along with high-level political visits from both sides. This happened in spite of the sanctions, in spite of Japan’s pre-occupation with its economic challenges and in spite of remnants of an old mindset that perceived India through the prism of the Cold War. But both countries are strongly wedded to striving for peace, stability and prosperity in Asia. It’s time, therefore, to move energetically towards building a strategic new partnership for a better world and Asia.
The area that needs urgent attention is that of trade and economic relations. It is unfortunate that bilateral trade has been declining after it peaked at $4.8 billion in 1995-96. It was a mere $3.6 billion in 2000-01. Our exports to Japan dropped from $2.2 billion to $1.8 billion in the same period in spite of a significant increase of exports in the information technology sector. Japanese investments in India (with actual inflow of $1.06 billion in ten years) are a fraction of what goes into even Vietnam. The fact that both trade and investments have registered decline since the mid-1990s would imply that India’s nuclear tests were not the primary factor for the trend. Nor can Japan’s own economic slowdown explain this. The roadblocks are many, not the least being the perceptions and reality of inefficiency, corruption and shortcoming in infrastructure. In fact, some of the notable projects in which Tokyo has invested are in infrastructure like the Delhi Metro and the Simhadi thermal power station.
Prominent Japanese have been making it clear that what their country seeks in its relationship with India is a move toward a strategic partnership. They believe that the relations between China, Japan and India would be the driving force of future geopolitics and security in the Asian continent. We need to recognise that Tokyo has maintained close relations with Pakistan over the years. But concerns about Pakistan’s continuing domestic instability and proliferation policies, which now pose direct challenges to Japan’s security, are issues that should encourage Japan to consider building a strategic partnership with this country. The threat of war in Iraq, the stagnating global war against terrorism, the complex energy situation in the world, the North Korean situation, stability in Afghanistan, are some of the key areas of common concern. Managing these challenges successfully certainly requires Japan and India to get closer.
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