Big on Japan

Bilateral meetings are not usually suffused with a sense of satisfaction,not even between long-term allies. Therefore,the success of Prime Minister Manmohan Singhs meeting with his counterpart in Japan,Naoto Kan,can be gauged from this press release: The two prime ministers reiterated the fundamental identity of values,interests and priorities between Japan and India. The sentiment needs to be flagged,because observers,even in the two governments,have for long been impatient with the inability of India and Japan to summon the mechanisms to engage substantively by building on a relationship free of any source of friction. It is in this context that it would be short-sighted to completely attribute the breakthroughs of this visit to India and Japans frictions with China.

Delhi and Tokyo,of course,have had a difficult year with respect to Beijing. Both are scoping their diplomatic terrain to find ways of coping with Chinas rise,and also with the territorial disputes China has begun to highlight. As key neighbours of China,they come to their ties with China from very different coordinates but both are invested in the building of a new Asian order in a way that diminishes confrontations with China. Neither would like to be seen to be ganging up on China,and instead both seek the integration of the region economically for the greater common good. Progress along many tracks should help. The conclusion of talks on a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement imparts economic substance to the bilateral relationship,given that it covers trade in goods and services. Japan is also extending cooperation on infrastructure development,replicating the Delhi-Mumbai corridor model,in other parts of the country. This would assist not just in Indias development,but will deepen Indias connection to Asian production chains. India has also committed to the stable supply of rare earth minerals to Japan. China,which has a near monopoly on the global market,has blocked normal supplies to Japan after bilateral tension over disputed waters.

Dr Singh can personally take much of the credit for enhancing cooperation between the two countries. In 2005,he established the convention of annual meetings between the two prime ministers. While India and Japan have often shared concerns,it has nonetheless required application to get them on the same page.