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India, Japan launch strategic dialogue

By C. Raja Mohan

NEW DELHI April 18. After cautiously probing each other for years about building a political partnership, India and Japan have finally cleared the ground for a substantive strategic dialogue.

Following an intensive round of consultations in Tokyo this week, the National Security Adviser, Brajesh Mishra, has laid the foundation for a strategic dialogue with Japan.

India and Japan engage a number of countries on strategic issues, but have found the establishment of a similar framework between themselves somewhat elusive.

During her visit to India in January, the Foreign Minister of Japan, Yoriko Kawaguchi, had dwelled on the importance of building on the many shared political interests between the two countries and expanding bilateral defence cooperation.

Mr. Mishra is in Japan at the invitation of Ms. Kawaguchi. Among the other leaders that Mr. Mishra has had talks are the Minister in charge of the Japanese Defence Agency, Shigeru Ishiba, and the Chief Cabinet Secretary, Yasuo Fukuda.

In his address to the Japanese Institute for International Affairs, Mr. Mishra said, "with our shared values and complementarities we can together make a major impact virtually everywhere''.

Among the areas of convergence between the two countries listed by Mr. Mishra are combating international terrorism, cooperation in the United Nations, and the development of advanced technologies.

Mr. Mishra regretted the slow pace of economic cooperation between India and Japan. He pointed to the fact that Sino-Indian trade, now at $ 5 billions wa30 per cent more than the Indo-Japanese trade.

In the past Japanese political interest in India was too narrowly focused on the tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad and nuclear proliferation.

Urging the Japanese not to look at India through the prism of South Asia and the Pakistan factor, Mr. Mishra said, "it would be an error not to recognise that India has broken free of these limiting confines''.

Recalling the tensions between India and Japan after the May 1998 nuclear tests, Mr. Mishra said, "our security concerns, which prompted that decision, are much better understood today. Perhaps you could also view it differently now, in the light of developments in your own neighbourhood''.

Mr. Mishra was referring to the clandestine nuclear and missile cooperation between North Korea and Pakistan which has severely undermined the security environment of Japan.

But the main emphasis of Mr. Mishra was on the future and the urgency of translating the common strategic outlook between India and Japan into "concrete action''.

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