Tightrope walk: on the India and Japan relationship and challenges from geopolitical issues
The HinduSince 2006, the Prime Ministers of India and Japan have exchanged visits for their “annual summit”, a meeting that has steered the course of this bilateral relationship. However, it was not the India-Japan Special Strategic and Global Partnership that was at the heart of the Japan Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s mission during his quick “official visit” to Delhi this week. His focus was on two areas: coordinating the G-7 and G-20 agendas on food and energy security issues arising mainly from the Ukraine conflict as well as unveiling Japan’s $75 billion plan for a Free and Open Indo-Pacific, to work with countries in the region on avoiding debt traps, building infrastructure, and enhancing maritime and air security. In talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Mr. Kishida is understood to have been “straightforward” about the need for India, as G-20 president, to come on board with the G-7’s plans to address the Ukraine issue and call out “Russian aggression”. With Mr. Modi set to visit Hiroshima as a G-7 special invitee in May, and later host Mr. Xi and Mr. Putin at the Summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, any shift in New Delhi’s tightrope balancing act on geopolitical issues would seem a stretch, even at the behest of a dear partner like Japan.