India-Japan Must Aim for Multi-polar Asia, Say Experts

December 24, 2013

New Delhi: In the backdrop of recent developments in Asia, The Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA) organised the IDSA-Japan Institute of International Affairs (JIIA) Bilateral Dialogue on December 24, 2013. The dialogue focussed on exploring mutual interests between India and Japan in the present scenario. The broad themes for the dialogue included India-Japan Relations, Maritime Issues in Asia and the US Rebalancing and its impact on Asia.

The five member-JIIA Delegation was led by Deputy Director General, JIIA, Mr Toshiro Ijima, who expressed strong optimism about the India Japan relations and said that the dialogue would provide useful input towards the upcoming visit of Prime Minister Abe.

Both the sides examined the evolution of the India-Japan relations in the recent years, highlighting the significance of visit by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Japan in May 2013 and the visit by the Japanese Emperor and Empress to India in December 2013. The upcoming visit to India by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe would be the next important step and would highlight the high level of significance attached to this relationship by both sides.

Both sides agreed that India and Japan must aim for a multi-polar Asia where there will be enough scope for the two countries to rise, cooperate and take a leading role in regional politics.

It was noted during the discussions that India-Japan economic cooperation remains below potential, even while the Japanese companies are seen positively in the Indian consumer market. It was agreed that concerted efforts must be made to take the bilateral trade closer to its potential. It was agreed that cooperation between Indian and Japanese legislatures is one issue that must be considered.

Both sides stressed that improvement in the India-Japan relations was not aimed at containing any third country and that it should not be viewed as such. The participants also explored the possible areas of strategic cooperation and identified science and technology and security cooperation and dialogue as future areas of cooperation. Challenges in the development of the civil nuclear cooperation were also highlighted. It was suggested that there should be multi-layer cooperation between India and Japan.

The two sides exchanged views on the developments in the East China Sea, US rebalancing strategy and the continuity and change in Japan’s national security strategy.

Director General IDSA, Dr Arvind Gupta also highlighted the significance of the evolving India-Japan relationship in context of the changing geopolitical and regional scenarios.

Both IDSA and JIIA agreed to continue the dialogue in future.