Three isn’t a crowd:

Three isn’t a crowd:

Context

• China was the looming presence in this year’s India-Japan Special Strategic and Global partnership summit.

What are the issues concerning China?

• “Toward a Free, Open and Prosperous Indo-Pacific”, the title of the joint statement, gave away the common concern weighing down both countries.
• India went into the summit fresh from settling the Doklam row with China.
• A cordial BRICS summit in Xiamen, China, was a mood elevator but not enough to wipe out the worry that there might be more Doklams .
• Japan, which has its own troubles with China over territory and much historical animosity, was the only country that openly articulated its support for India during those two troubled months.

What does the joint statement signify?

• The joint statement calls for a “rules-based order” in the Indo-Pacific region where “sovereignty and international law are respected, and differences resolved through dialogue, and where all countries, large or small, enjoy freedom of navigation and overflight, sustainable development, and a free, fair and open trade and investment system”.
• The joint statement also took a swipe at China’s OBOR initiative by calling for transparency in the development of connectivity and infrastructure development in the region, and reaffirmed the India-Japan project to connect Africa and Asia.
• The defence and security co-operation between the two countries has steadily risen over the last few years, with the Malabar joint exercise the most high-profile representation of this.

Way ahead

• Both New Delhi and Tokyo have to keep in mind that they have independent relations with China, with problems unique to their own bilateral histories.
• The next step in the India-Japan partnership has to be constructive engagement with China.