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India a strategic partner: Japan

By P. S. Suryanarayana

SINGAPORE Jan. 1. Japan looks at India as a ``strategic partner'' in the definitive context of new perceptions that are beginning to determine the course of the ongoing global ``fight against terrorism''.

Reinterpreting Tokyo's policy-orientation towards India, the Japanese Foreign Minister, Yoriko Kawaguchi, said Japan was cognisant of the importance of reinforcing its present global partnership with India from a ``strategic point of view'' too. The current bilateral partnership, agreed upon in August 2000, is essentially a mechanism for dialogue on issues of prime international concern ranging from terrorism to environment protection.

In an exclusive written interview to The Hindu, ahead of her prospective visit to India early next week, Ms. Kawaguchi said Tokyo was ``naturally concerned'' over the latest reports that Pakistan cooperated with North Korea'', Japan's neighbour, as regards Pyongyang's ``nuclear weapon programme''. Japan ``will continue to observe this issue closely'', she underlined, without elaborating.

In candid answers, sent through diplomatic channels, she ruled out the possibility of Japan becoming a nuclear power, in any sense of the strategic metaphor of proliferation, in spite of North Korea's latest activities. Apart from justifying this policy with reference to Tokyo's updated MacArthur-era Constitution and the ``special sentiment'' of the ``Japanese public'', she acknowledged that ``Japan's taking the option of possessing nuclear weapons would destabilise the (present) international situations''.

In a language refreshingly free from the idiom of Japan's recent disapproval of India's own nuclear weapons programme, Ms. Kawaguchi struck an upbeat note about the relations between Tokyo and New Delhi at this time. She also disclosed that New Delhi was assisting the Japan Maritime Self-Defence Force's vessels that were operating in the Indian Ocean area ``in support of the international community's fight against terrorism''.

However, she asserted that ``Japan's basic security policy remained unchanged'' with ``transparency'' governing the Tokyo-Washington strategic equation.

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