India & Japan take recent shifts in their stride 

News: Recently, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was on visit to New Delhi. The visit was important for several reasons. 

What are the important outcomes of the visit?

Wrt Ukraine conflict: In the Joint Statement, both sides called for international law to be respected and for an immediate cessation of violence in Ukraine. It is mostly on lines of India’s Position. Therefore, this visit must have lowered down the probability of major diplomatic backlash against India. It was because the western countries were not happy with India’s measured position in wake of the Ukraine Crisis.  

Wrt Myanmar crisis: Both countries have similar stands on the Myanmar crisis, 2021. For example, New Delhi and Tokyo have chosen to adopt quiet diplomacy and an ASEAN-brokered political solution to the crisis. 

The Japanese announcement of investment of worth $42 billion over the next five years is crucial for economic growth of India.  

Both agreed to have a range of partnerships in cybersecurity, development assistance, and clean energy development. For example, Tokyo’s vital support for high-technology innovation and development in the Northeast, 

Both restated their long-standing commitment to supporting the other’s bid for permanent membership at the UN Security Council.  

Defence Sector: India and Japan signed a Mutual Logistics and Supply Agreement (MLSA) in 2020 which allows the militaries to access each other’s bases and a host of related supplies. In the context of the Ukraine crisis, this provided an opportunity for India to diversify its source of armaments and key technologies. 

Geostrategic Importance: Both aims at providing security for the Indo-Pacific. Therefore, India, Japan, the United States and Australia are trying to build a new security architecture in Indo-Pacific.  

What are some issues in India-Japan ties? 

Defence: India is facing rouble in acquiring Japan’s Shinmaywa US-2 maritime reconnaissance aircraft. In addition, Indo-Japanese MLSA is also a scaled-down version of the more expansive Japan-Australia Reciprocal Access Agreement.  

The Asia-Africa Growth Corridor is a crucial part of India’s diplomatic strategy has not come to reality so far. It is a joint Indo-Japanese effort to build infrastructure and connectivity projects in Africa and South-East Asia. 

There has been no progress on reworking the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) which was signed in 2011. While the CEPA did boost bilateral trade, it has expanded India’s trade deficit with Japan. 

What is the way forward?

Both must urgently review and avoid the shortcomings that are coming up in the Indo-Japan efforts in the AAGC.  

The CEPA should be reworked as soon as possible. It remains critically important if Indo-Japanese trade is to be both robust and balanced. 

Source: The post is based on an article “India and Japan take recent shifts in their stride” published in the Business Standard on 22 March 2022