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India-Japan-US Talks :SUSTAINING A STABLE ASIA, by Monish Tourangbam, 13 Apr, 11 Print E-mail

Round The World

New Delhi, 13 April 2011  

India-Japan-US Talks

SUSTAINING A STABLE ASIA

By Monish Tourangbam,

Research Scholar, School of International Studies (JNU)

Looking at the nature-inflicted crises in Japan and its ramifications for the Japanese economy and nuclear industry and with concerns of a rising China that increasingly sees Asia as its zone of hegemonic sphere, the US as well as Japan would more than ever realize the importance of India as a power balancer in Asia.

Lately, Japan was overtaken by China as the second largest economy in the world and then came the current natural calamity that Prime Minister Naoto Kan has called its worst crisis since the end of World War II. In this hour of need, New Delhi has steadfastly stood with Tokyo by providing aid and assistance whole-heartedly. India has a lot of stakes in the sustainability of the Japanese economy and the continuation of its major power status in the region.

At the same time, India, U.S. and Japan share common interests in preserving strategic stability in Asia in the face of the undoubted rise of Chinese power in the region. India’s Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao paid a recent visit to quake-hit Japan and held talks with leaders of the Japanese Foreign Ministry on a range of bilateral, regional and global issues and concerns related to the natural disaster.

India has offered assistance to Japan in “any way required” something much appreciated by the Japanese side. According to sources, an Indian relief and rehabilitation team has already fulfilled several need-based tasks in the Miyagi prefecture, one of the worst affected areas.

Both sides agreed to have Ministerial-level Economic Dialogue apart from initiating an India-Japan-U.S. trilateral dialogue. “The two sides agreed that the new Ministerial-level Economic Dialogue, announced by the Prime Ministers at their Annual Summit in Tokyo in October last, will be led by the Foreign Ministers of the two countries. The first meeting of the Dialogue will take place later this year,” sources said.

But the limelight was stolen by the announcement that trilateral talks comprising India, Japan and the US will be initiated. An agreement was reached to establish an India-Japan-US trilateral dialogue on regional and global issues of shared interest. These consultations, agreed to earlier by the US would be conducted by the Foreign Ministries of the three countries.

It is indeed an opportune time for the formulation of such a framework, looking at the trajectory of the relationships between the countries involved. India-US cooperation and the range of issues on which they work together are more comprehensive than ever before.

Both the administrations in Washington and New Delhi are clearer than ever in their support for a more robust India-US relationship, evident in the expanding defence cooperation between the two countries and the range of military exercises that both have been conducting over the years. Significant, being the Naval Malabar exercises, of which Japan is also an important partner and which has often drawn the ire of the Chinese Government.

At the same time, India-Japan relations have seen an upward trend in recent years and successive leaders of the Japanese Government have given utmost importance to a close relationship and the gesture has been well reciprocated from both sides. The two countries had also signed a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) to give a boost to trade in goods, services and investment.

While talks on a nuclear deal were steaming up, the present calamity has put the Japanese nuclear industry in a predicament, as the Government has to first tackle the fallout of the disaster that has sent shockwaves raising new concerns about safety standards of nuclear installations.

Importantly, Indian nuclear installations, being largely stationed on the coast, have drawn quite a lot of attention concerning their safety standards. As such, talks of a nuclear deal between India and Japan have definitely faced a speed breaker.

But, at this time of need for Japan, India needs to be cautious of how it deals with the Japanese side. New Delhi has shown all seriousness with continuing the talks of the tie-up in the nuclear energy sector. And the continuance of India’s confidence on Japan would surely have major dividends when India needs support at any international diplomatic table.

Further, Foreign Secretary Rao during her discussions with the top brass of the Japanese Foreign Ministry conveyed that India had not yet taken a decision on banning Japanese food imports and that it would consult Japan prior to taking a decision on the advisory issued by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India. Apprehensions abound regarding radiation contamination due the ongoing nuclear calamity at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, ravaged by the quake and tsunami.

Interestingly, the announcement of initiating the India-Japan-US trilateral talks also came just before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is due to meet the top Chinese leadership in Sanya on the sidelines of the Brazil-Russia-India-China summit (with South Africa to join in as a new member). This indicates that India is not out to annoy other powers and neither there is a game of choosing sides. International politics is increasingly entering a multi-lateralist phase where the centres of power are more diffused than ever.

Though the US overwhelms other countries including its rising competitor China in the military sphere, the sources of power are more multi-pronged and the US is hardly the power it used to be in the economic sphere, still undergoing a fragile recovery from the financial recession.

Hence, the thrust is on engaging all the major powers, keeping clear the areas of convergences and the lines that cannot be crossed in view of one’s national interest. That is why India intends to work together with China, Russia and also with Japan and the US, putting forward its relevance as a power to reckon with and the deliverables that it can provide.

Significantly, the continuing trajectory of Indian foreign policy emphasizes India’s insistence on an independent foreign policy, factoring the need to increase areas of cooperation across a broad spectrum of issues with diverse countries. So, if India finds itself on the same plane with the US and Japan, to keep a check on any future belligerency by a rising China, thus sharing a common interest in preserving a stable Asia, at the same time New Delhi may find more areas of cooperation with Beijing when it comes to the issue of climate change talks as against the developed western countries.

Thus, this is a period of complex interdependence and hence, the India-Japan-US trilateral talks should not be projected as targeting anyone in the region. The emphasis should rather be on the traction that it could provide India’s strategic calculations in the region and enhance habits of cooperation with the concerned countries, US and Japan, with which India already shares major areas of cooperation.

Clearly, the rise of a hegemonic and an aggressive China will not serve the interests of any country in the Asian Continent, and this is something clear to most policy makers and analyst across boundaries. Consequently, this projected trilateral framework should serve as leverage for Indian policymakers and be a sober reminder to the Chinese that their strategic moves are being watched quite intensely. ---- INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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