Why PM Modi's Presence At Shinzo Abe Funeral Is Important As India, Japan Look To Deepen Strategic Ties

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is leaving for Japan Monday to attend the state funeral of slain former Japan PM Shinzo Abe on September 27. Abe, who was killed by a rogue youth on July 8, had been the longest surviving PM of Japan and considered a great friend of India. He was among those world leaders with whom Modi was said to have developed a strong personal chemistry. His death shocked India and the PM had called it a personal loss. And hence, Modi personally attending the funeral of a former PM does not come as a surprise, and the visit in fact signifies the strong friendly relations between the two Asian giants, India and Japan.  

This friendship between Modi and Abe was not because of any personal reasons, but due to a convergence of national interests and democratic values.  Japan views India as a stabilising force in the Indo-Pacific region, and hence has always had a special interest in the country.

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History Of India-Japan Ties   

The warmth in the India-Japan relationship goes back to the eighth century when Indian monk Bodhisena visited Todaji temple in Japan’s Nara and performed the consecration or eye-opening ceremony of the towering statue of Lord Buddha installed in 752 AD. Since the ancient days, when Buddhism was spreading, people of Japan have adored India. Indian culture filtered into Japan through Buddhism has had a great impact on Japanese culture, and this in turn brought the two closer.

In 1952, after Japan regained its full sovereignty, Tokyo and New Delhi signed a peace treaty and established diplomatic relations. In 1957, then Japanese PM Nobusuke Kishi visited India, and his Indian counterpart Jawaharlal Nehru paid a return visit to Tokyo the same year. 

In later years, though Cold War dynamics slowed down the high-level political exchanges, India and Japan never had any dispute on any issue. Almost a decade after the end of the Cold War era, the relations once again saw an upward trajectory and never looked back. 

Today, in the emerging geopolitics, especially after the Covid pandemic outbreak and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, close strategic ties hold special meaning and significance for the new world order.

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What Unites India And Japan 

Democratic values and respect for human rights and belief in the rule of law in the International domain brought the two nations even closer. In 2000, when then PM Yoshiro Mori visited India, the two countries began a new era of relationship, with the establishment of  “Global Partnership between India and Japan”.

Japan and India, both tormented by China, found the value of a united stand against China’s aggressive and expansionist behaviour, from South and East China Sea to the Indian Ocean. China, however, is not the only uniting factor between India and Japan. The deepening friendship between the world’s biggest democracy and the most prosperous and technologically advanced nation is because of common interests they want to pursue for mutual economic development, peace, security and stability in the Indo-Pacific region.

With this aim, India and Japan started holding annual summits from 2005, when then PM Junichiro Koizumi visited India. The tradition is not only continuing till date, but has also expanded the level of political interaction with the initiation of 2+2 dialogue comprising foreign and defence ministers of the two countries in 2019. In Japan, there is bipartisan support for strengthening strategic and economic relations with India, and hence the ties have evolved and matured so fast. 

When then PM Manmohan singh paid a return visit to Japan for an annual summit, the relationship was elevated as “Global and Strategic Partnership”. And in 2014, when Modi visited Japan for the annual summit, then PM Abe proposed the elevation of the relationship to “Special Strategic and Global Partnership”. Abe’s visit to India the next year saw the two countries resolve to transform the Japan-India special strategic and global partnership into a deep broad-based and action-oriented partnership reflecting a broad convergence of their long-term political, economic and strategic goals. The two leaders announced “Japan and India Vision 2025 Special Strategic and Global Partnership Working Together for Peace and Prosperity of the Indo-Pacific Region and the World”, a joint statement that aimed to serve as a guidepost for the “new era in Japan-India relations”. 

To meaningfully transform the strategic partnerships, the two countries have been strengthening cooperation in security fields also. In 2008, when PM Manmohan Singh visited Japan, the two countries signed a joint declaration on security cooperation. To bring this cooperation to visible ground level, India and Japan have initiated various frameworks of security and defence dialogue, which includes the annual defence ministerial dialogue. Under this framework, the armed forces of the two countries have started interacting through joint exercises and staff-level talks. The naval forces of the two countries have just finished their bilateral Japan-India maritime exercise in the Bay of Bengal. Japan is also a participant in the four-nation Malabar exercises, initially started between India and USA in 1992. Today, the two countries have expanded their partnership in the multilateral groupings like Quad, the alliance of four powerful nations comprising India, Australia, Japan and the USA. India and Japan are also members of four-nation G-4, which includes Brazil, Japan, Germany and India, for canvassing their case jointly for expansion and subsequent inclusion of four nations as permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.

Besides the strategic and security arenas, the two countries are now giving priority to deepen their economic relations too. Japan has been one of the biggest donor countries to India. Under its Overseas Development Assistance programme, Japan has since 2000 contributed over $30 billion to India to support the efforts towards economic development. Japan is also the sixth largest investor in India with a cumulative investment of over $32 billion during the last two decades. Tensions between Japan and China over the ownership of a few islands in the East China Sea and the disruption in supply chain due to the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia-Ukraine war have encouraged some of the Japanese industry to shift their production base to India and make India as a source of alternative supply chain. India needs to gear up to grab the opportunity to benefit from a deeper friendship with Japan.

The author is a strategic affairs analyst.

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