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An Indo-Japan core agenda
INDIA AND JAPAN seem inclined to evolve a core agenda of cooperation in the specific context of their search for a ``global partnership''. While the core agenda itself may span the possibilities of new economic linkages, a ``comprehensive security dialogue'' will determine the spirit of bilateral cooperation. These and other related aspects are discernible in the fine print of the Joint Declaration that the Japanese Prime Minister, Mr. Junichiro Koizumi, and his Indian counterpart, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, issued at the conclusion of their summit in Tokyo on Monday. Their meeting was a sequel to the talks that the previous Japanese Prime Minister, Mr. Yoshiro Mori, held with Mr. Vajpayee in New Delhi in August last year with the stated objective of setting the bilateral relationship on a new course for the 21st century. The latest meeting between Mr. Koizumi and Mr. Vajpayee, a noticeably friendly exercise in public diplomacy, was preceded by Japan's decision to suspend the ``economic measures'', a euphemism for sanctions, which Tokyo imposed on India in the context of its nuclear weaponisation tests in 1998. In a definitive sense, the circumstances of Japan's move in October this year to roll back those sanctions had much to do with the politics of an emerging global environment in which India and the U.S. made common cause in the anti-terror `campaign'. Not insignificantly, therefore, Tokyo threatened to reimpose the original sanctions in the event of any fresh testing of atomic arms by India. Yet, with India now appearing to have come to terms with Mr. Koizumi's plainspeak about the waiver of those sanctions, Mr. Vajpayee has chosen the present moment to express an appreciation of Tokyo's recent gesture of goodwill. The language of the latest Joint Declaration indicates that India and Japan are indeed hopeful of a new spring in bilateral ties in the wake of a so-called nuclear winter that has gone by.
Official India reckons that vibrant economic interactions and a certain degree of strategic convergence will set the parameters for a viable relationship with Japan in the present international climate of unusual uncertainties. Tokyo, on the other hand, is of the view that the economic opportunities and the geostrategic compulsions of both India and Japan in facing the present global challenges might shape a new bilateral paradigm of mutual benefit. An objective reality that must be underlined is that the Indo-Japanese relationship can be stabilised only if the residual sensitivities of the two sides about the nuclear issue and other related matters are addressed in a mutually acceptable way.
It is a good sign, therefore, that the Joint Declaration seeks to institutionalise the intended bilateral exchanges at the echelons of Ministers for foreign affairs, finance and defence on a regular basis. In a broad sweep, the security dialogue will cover counter-terrorism issues as well, not to mention maritime safety for the purposes of energy supplies to Japan from West Asia and the like. However, Japan's basic objective in formulating the catch-all proposition is to engage India in a sustainable fashion on global issues of disarmament, non-proliferation of the weapons of mass destruction, missile technology and the like. The studied accent on Japan's ``global partnership'' with India is shorthand for such activities aimed at evolving a common stand in the context of their separate aspirations for permanent seats in the United Nations Security Council. In a sense, the ``global partnership'' can be buttressed by a strong bilateral economic linkage. The two leaders have identified complementarities in the information technology sector, while Japan recognises India as the last major frontier for foreign investments in such other fields as infrastructure.
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