India-Japan cooperation in the Indo-Pacific
India-Japan cooperation in the Indo-Pacific
WRITTEN BY SIMRAN WALIA
27 March 2020
Relations between India and Japan have seen a major boost ever since Prime Minister Narendra Modi assumed his office in 2014. Japanese PM Shinzo Abe could relate well with PM Modi as both leaders share values as nationalist leaders, as well as concerns over threats posed by an assertive China and economic growth strategy. Modi’s first trip as Prime Minister outside of South Asia was to Japan where he upgraded India-Japan relations to a ‘Special Strategic and Global Partnership’.
Thereafter, in 2015, the Modi Government officially accepted the term ‘Indo-Pacific’ after the inaugural US-India-Japan Trilateral Ministerial Dialogue in New York amidst assertive Chinese behaviour in the South China Sea. In November 2017, the Quadrilateral framework, which was originally Abe’s vision of a ‘Security Diamond’, was revitalised as a senior officials-level meeting in Manila.
The upcoming 14th Annual Summit between PM Modi and PM Abe Modi is expected to intensify cooperation in the Indo-Pacific for ensuring regional stability and deepening strategic ties in the co-development of military and technology hardware facilities. The Maritime Security of Indo-Pacific has motivated India and Japan to come closer while fostering synergy and enabling formation of balance of power equations. Furthermore, Modi has been careful to assure the international community that India does not see Indo-Pacific as a concept for containing China. In fact, it is becoming more important for India to maintain strategic relations with China and Russia given American protectionism in the economy and unilateralism in security under the Donald Trump administration.
Ever since China has become a major actor in the international system, it has caused structural shifts in the distribution of power and has challenged the role of the United States.
Japan’s take on the Indo-Pacific
Fundamentally, there are two forces that drive the rationale for PM Abe’s ‘Free and Open Indo-Pacific strategy for Japan – the rise of China and the relative decline of the US presence in Asia. The concept of ‘Free and Open Indo-Pacific’ seeks to ensure that countries can act without any coercion and can trade and invest in simpler ways. India too, has adopted the same strategy of the Indo-Pacific. Abe stated the importance of the connectivity between the Indian Ocean, the seas of Asia and the Pacific Ocean as well as freedom of navigation and rule of law.
Most of India's immediate and extended neighbours in the Indian Ocean are fragile politically and financially, and China is expanding its influence in this region by putting to use its enormous wealth.
The Abe administration is willing to invest more in reinforcing the alliance with the United States and designing a value-based network of allies in Indo-Pacific. Since the logic of Japan’s value-based approach that was evident in universal values like rule of law, democracy and human rights gained primacy in the Abe administration, India has also featured as an actor in Japan’s important strategic concepts like ‘Arc of Freedom and Prosperity’, ‘Confluence of the two Seas’ and ‘Free and Open Indo-Pacific vision’. According to Abe, Japan’s priority is to expand the country’s horizons strategically in order to protect the Sea lanes of communication (SLOCs) and the two oceans.
He, therefore, envisaged a strategy wherein Australia, India and the US state of Hawaii form a diamond to safeguard the maritime commons stretching from the Indian Ocean region to the Pacific Ocean.
From this point of view, it can be seen that the Indo-Pacific strategy is based on the pillars of realism, that is, balance of power elements. The strategy also displays a liberal approach in the sense of providing and maintaining the global commons in the region, and Japan’s cooperation with development and stability in Asia and Africa. On the other side, it attempts to counter-balance the rise of China and provide more resources to maintain the international liberal order.
Trump and Abe stressed the importance of the Indo-Pacific as the core of the vitality of the world. They also agreed that Japan and the United States will work together to promote peace and prosperity in the region by developing the Indo-Pacific as free and open in terms of free trade and movement of goods and services.
Significance of Indo-Japanese cooperation in Indo-Pacific
India shares Japan’s interests in regional stability in Indo-Pacific – including the need to develop its democracy and economy. The Japanese administration has also conceptualized the mutuality of interests and shared responsibility that Tokyo and New Delhi has in securing Sea lines of Communication (SLOCs) as a regional public good. Japan’s primary concern is to forestall any kind of Chinese interference in SLOCs passing through the Indian Ocean.
Most of India's immediate and extended neighbours in the Indian Ocean are fragile politically and financially, and China is expanding its influence in this region by putting to use its enormous wealth. However, Japan has maintained cordial relations with almost all the nations in the Indian Ocean region and does not seem to be a power with hegemonic goals in India’s neighbourhood. Therefore, it is plausible to see Japan’s activities as contributions financially and politically towards welfare, stability and democratisation in the region.
Tokyo is also working independently with both New Delhi and Washington in order to advance infrastructure, connectivity and capacity building in the Indo-Pacific. For instance, the Indian government was interested in Japanese submarines. India and Japan have widely cooperated on infrastructure and connectivity projects in North-East India, which includes road development projects as well.
India and Japan have coordinated widely on issues such as maritime security and strategic connectivity at the bilateral, trilateral and multilateral level. To further bolster security cooperation, India has unveiled its ‘Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative’ in November 2019, that will focus on maritime security and foster rules-based international order in the region. Since India has built partnerships among interested states, it finds consonance in ‘Japan’s Vientiane Vision 2.0’, whose objectives are to ensure rule of law, capacity-building, maritime security, disaster prevention and management of non-traditional threats. It also focuses its role on Asia-Pacific in general and South-East Asia in particular. The India-Japan Maritime Affairs dialogue explores mutual interests in this regard.
On the sidelines of the 14th East-Asia Summit held in November 2019, Modi and Abe decided to work towards a more stable Indo-Pacific. There is a strong scepticism as to whether the concept of Indo-Pacific is going to be successfully and systematically institutionalised or not since countries like South Korea and Philippines are not involved in it. Therefore, certain gaps exist in synergy and inclusivity.
A great deal of wisdom and flexibility are required to shape China’s future trajectory in a benign way without sacrificing current world’s economic prosperity. To maintain the Indo-Pacific order, there needs to be more accommodation and communication between major powers for prosperous and stable Indo-Pacific.
DISCLAIMER: All views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent that of the 9DASHLINE.com platform.
Author biography
Simran Walia is currently pursuing M.Phil in Japanese Studies under the Centre for East Asian Studies from Jawaharlal Nehru University. Prior to this, she was working as a Research Assistant at Observer Research Foundation. She has her work published in magazines and websites like, The Diplomat, Indian Defence Review, and The Geopolitics. She has recently published a paper on Japan-Afghanistan relations available here. Image credit: Ministry of External Affairs (India)/Flickr.