Historical ties between India and Japan grew into a ‘special strategic and global partnership. Comment.
How the answer moves
The flow snapshot — the routes in, the body, the counter-view and the routes out.
Route 1 dispute-free civilizational base (Buddhism, no rivalry) → goodwill real but not sufficient → strategy did the building
Route 2 Japan as early symbol of Asian resurgence → historic warmth → but the formal partnership is strategy-driven, not sentiment-driven
staged upgradation: Global Partnership 2000 → Strategic & Global 2006 (Abe) → Special Strategic & Global 2014 (Tokyo Declaration) → Pardesi’s drivers (Cold War’s end, reforms, China, sea lanes) → content fills the label: CEPA, bullet train, non-NPT civil-nuclear, Quad, FOIP → Aug 2025 summit: ten-year vision, ¥10 trillion, economic security (semiconductors, critical minerals)
Pant: best-ever, yet the most under-realised → trade below potential, delivery lagging the political warmth
Route 1 history supplied trust, strategy supplied momentum → judged by delivery, not sentiment
Route 2 real in framing and capital, thin in trade/industrial content → next decade’s test is execution
Model answer
Handwritten, in the form it would be written in the examination hall.
