What are the main drivers of India-Japan Strategic and Global Partnership?
How the answer moves
The flow snapshot — the routes in, the body, the counter-view and the routes out.
Route 1 India’s most conflict-free major-power tie → never adversaries, no dispute → Abe’s “natural ally”
Route 2 frictionlessness as the base → complementarity + China + Indo-Pacific stacked on it
complementarity (capital/tech/ageing ↔ market/young) → economic base (yen loans, CEPA, ODA → ¥5tn to ¥10tn) → China the sharper driver (Pardesi: rise revives a frozen tie) → Panda (Asia resents assertiveness; Senkaku / boundary) → shared vision (Abe “confluence” → Act East Forum ↔ FOIP → John: construct makes it regional–global) → why now (US unpredictable + China rival → Pant: Japan dependable) → institutional density (SSGP 2014, 2+2, Quad) → newest driver: economic security (semiconductors / critical minerals / clean energy → de-risking China)
least encumbered yet most under-realised → trade below potential, out of RCEP, defence-industrial lag → Japan’s 2025 export-rule review + UNICORN begin to close it
Route 1 drivers structural + complementary → China/Indo-Pacific = push, capital/market = pull
Route 2 warmth is real; the future turns on converting it into hard content
Model answer
Handwritten, in the form it would be written in the examination hall.
