Indo-Nippon Ring Games - Cornering China?
by Debojyoti Kumar
Cultural relation between India and Japan dates back to sixth century when Buddhism got introduced in Japan and through Buddhism Japanese culture was impacted upon by Indian culture. There are many parallels in the religious beliefs of India and Japan. For example Indian deities Sawaswati, Brahma and Yama has parallel representation in Japanese culture in the form of Benzaiten, Bonten and Enma respectively. First political contact by Japan was through the Portugese colonies in India. Between the
sixteenth and nineteenth centuries Indian seamen visited Japan as crew members aboard Portugese and British ships. Relations between the two nations had progressed since then. Direct political exchange between India and Japan began after 1868 when Japan set its path ontowards the process of modernization.
Japan-India Association was founded in 1903. Cultural exchanges occurred during the twentieth century in 1950s and 1960s mainly through the cultural exposure of the two civilizations by means of feature films which at that time mainly represented the political and economic conditions, psyche,beliefs and ideologies of the society in general. It also enabled creative minds of both the countries to come closer and paved way for deeper interaction between the population of both the countries. Creations of reknown and acclaimed film personalities like Satyajit Ray and Guru Dutt were influential in Japan; similarly creations of Akira Kurosawa, Yasujiro Ozu were influential in India.
There had been instances of friendship and exchange of thoughts between Japanese thinker Okakura Tenshin and Indian writer the Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, Okakura Tenshin and Bengali poet Priyamvada Banerjee. India had extended her support to Japan when after World War II in 1951 owing to the concerns over constraints imposed on Japanese sovereignty and her independence India refrained from attending San Francisco Peace conference. Official and diplomatic relation was established with Japan after India and Japan signed a peace treaty in 28 April 1952 in which India waived off all reparation claims against Japan.
This treaty was one of the first treaties signed with Japan in her favour after World War II. Economic, diplomatic and technical relations were established between India and Japan. Indian's supply of iron ore helped Japan to rebuild her infrastructural industry and thereby her economy and thus greatly aided in her recovery after world war II. Japan on the other hand had become the largest donor of aide for India and till today remains so. Japan is one of the largest ODA (Official Development Assistance) facilitator of India. As on 30th November, 2015, sixty five projects are under implementation with Japanese loan assistance. Coordial relations between the two countries include but are not limited to Air service, culture and heritage, economic ties, commerce, cooperation in the field of science and technology, student exchange programme etc.
A few aspects of Indo-Japanese synergies are,the abundance of human capital in India complementing the abundance of monetary capital but paucity of human capital in Japan;India's efficiency in software sector lending synergy to the hardware sector of Japan; large domestic market of India factoring in for investment in fields like automobiles and auto parts and different machineries.
Examples of Indo-Japanese economic ties are CEPA and DMIC, both of which merit a separate mention with respect to close relationship between India and Japan:
CEPA or Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement: This agreement was signed between India and Japan on 16th February 2011 and was brought into effect in the month of August of 2011 itself. In addition to accelerating business activities this agreement aimed at elimination of tariff on 90 percent of imports in India by Japan while eliminating tariff on 97 percent of exports to Japan from India. While Japanese exports to India are products such as auto parts and electric appliances Indian exports to Japan are petroleum,agricultural and fishery, gems and jewellery, ferroalloys, inorganic/organic chemicals etc.
DMIC or Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor: The two countries had agreed to collaborate on DMIC project. The developmental scheme of DMIC included construction of one 4000 megawatt power plant, six-lane intersection free expressway, six airports, three ports and a high speed freight-line and development of nine industrial zones.
Nuclear Energy is a key component to cut down carbon emission and with that aim in view civil nuclear deal is another aspect where cooperation between India and Japan is on the increase. During the very recent visit of Japanese prime minister Mr. Shinzo Abe to India in December 2015, an agreement on civil nuclear energy cooperation was signed which according our prime minister Mr. Narendra Modi is a shining symbol of a new level of mutual confidence aimed towards a peaceful and secure world. Japan has committed to substantial cooperation of India's first bullet train and investment of $12 billion in India by the Japanese companies.
An agreement on sharing of technology, equipment and military information was also signed. Japan's regular participation in Malabar series of exercises held primarily between Indian and US was also positively determined. Talks are going on for acquisition of Japanese amphibious aircraft US-2 made by ShinMaywa industries of Japan.
All the above cooperation emphasizes on the age old cooperation between the two countries for centuries fulfilling each other's socioeconomic needs in a very peaceful and mutually synergized manner.
The recent developments between India and Japan comes at a time when China is making her claims over the South China Sea, Senkaku Islands, hard transgressing the LAC thereby trying to encroach and occupy Indian territory by the inches, supporting Pakistan in thwarting India's claim in the NSG and arming her as well,building dams in PoK which belongs to India without India's consent, is increasingly becoming aggressive in the IOR and South China sea with her claims over the natural resources.
The size of China’s national defence budget has more than doubled over the past five years and has grown approximately 30 times over the past 24 years. The primary focus is on the modernization of Chinese air force and navy. In 1990 China had 55 surface combat ships out of which 16 were big ships of 3000 tons of load displacement but, by 2012 the number of bigships had increased to 55 taking the total number to 78. Big ships are capable of operating in a wider area than small ships. Till date China possesses 10 nuclear submarines as well. It can be concluded that China’s aggressive assertiveness in the West Pacific and in the Indian Ocean brings to the fore her expansionist policy in Asia which merits for a strong cooperation between the affected nations both militarily and economically.
India and Japan with their age old cultural exchanges and peaceful coexistence are natural candidates to fill the power vacuum in Asia and counter the aggressive assertiveness of China. While Japan is a technological giant in nearly every aspect of modern era her self imposed constraint of maintaining a miniscule defence force post world war II may have emboldened Chinese ambitions in the South China Sea.In recent times China has become highly assertive in her claims over Senkaku islands and aggrressive in her patrols in the R. India with her big naval force (currently approximately 32 big ships) and with the navy fighter jets have a great potential to become a security provider in the IOR which eventually also forms the route of supply of energy resources for Japan on which she heavily depends. India's restraint of use of military power has enabled her to gain a position of immense trust among peace loving nations. Indian forces had been largely reactive and had been involved primarily in peacekeeping operations. Owing to Japanese shift towards arms export from April 2014,thereby departing from the self-imposed arms export ban, agreements
concerning transfer of defence equipment and technology were signed during the last visit of Japanese Prime minister Mr. Shinzo Abe to India thus opening a new chapter between India and Japan in defence cooperation. This cooperation involves carrying out of joint research, development and production projects. Japan had been earmarked as a priviledged partner in defence projects by our defence minister Mr. Manohar Parrikar.
As a joint venture project to start with India and Japan can coproduce the US-2 amphibious seaplane in India and India can absorb two squadrons, one for the navy and another for the air force, which will only enhance the blue water capabilities of Indian navy and will add a marine wing to the IAF. The distribution of the amphibious aircraft between the two forces will have strategic importance in enabling them to support each other during crunch situations and facilitate in relatively easy maintenance of the aircraft due to divided workload for the same. With Japan already progressing impressively in their quest for building their first fifth generation aircraft and India cooperating with Russia to obtain her own, future and present Indo-Japan joint areal war games can become a huge learning venture for air operations against a common adversary in the form of China. The prospect of civil and defence related co-operations between India and Japan is likely to augur into greater strategic partners and their joint operations can be a huge balancing factor in the containment of unjust aggression by the expansionist countries and become a force to be reckoned in the IOR.
Debojyoti Kumar is an avid Defence enthusiast and a great fan of IDN. This interesting piece on Indo-Nippon relations was written by him exclusively for IDN. Views express are his own