By Kunai Singh
The two leaders should coordinate on China while increasing economic cooperation.
The timing of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Japan, scheduled from August 31 to September 3, is slightly off. However, what has been lost in timing can be made up in the rhetoric of the joint statement. The visit to Japan was initially scheduled for July 3 to July 5. Modi had to postpone the visit due to the Budget Session of Parliament beginning from July 7.
Had the initial visit materialized, consider the chronology of events that would have been witnessed: 1) Tibetan Prime Minister in-exile Lobsang Sangay visits India for Modi’s swearing-in ceremony on May 26; 2) Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Cabinet announces a reinterpretation of the country’s pacifist Constitution(specifically Article 9) on July 1 that would allow Japanese Self-Defense Forces to come to the aid of allied countries under attack; and 3) Modi, who is believed to share very good personal relations with Abe, visiting Japan on July 3. The combined impact of these three events in succession could have sent a clear message to Beijing, that the new government under Modi would not allow China to assert its primacy in the region.
The missed opportunity of not visiting Japan early enough should now be offset by the rhetoric of the joint statement. The converging geo-political interests of India and Japan in curbing the growing assertiveness of China in the Asia-Pacific is certainly one of the major factors binding the two nations together. While the unresolved border dispute between India and China has continued for more than six decades, a relatively newer aggressive posture by China vis-à-vis Japan over the ownership of the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea has opened up new opportunities for cooperation between India and Japan.
Read the full story at The Diplomat