In the light of signals pointing to warming of ties between India and Japan, the Chinese have indecorously called Japanese political leaders ‘petty burglars’
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe have sought to underline an across-the-board understanding and cooperative spirit between the two countries.
This has not happened before although India has for long been a recipient of major Japanese investments, and the two countries have coordinated strategies to find a permanent seat in the UN Security Council. In Tokyo, on Tuesday, Dr Singh even spoke of Japan as a “natural and indispensable partner” in India’s quest for stability and peace in Asia.
None of this can be music to Beijing’s ears. In the light of signals pointing to warming of ties between India and Japan, the Chinese have indecorously called Japanese political leaders “petty burglars”. This is evidently a reaction to Japan claiming islands in the East China Sea that China also claims. China has also counselled India that wisdom lies in the two nations dealing with their disputes undisturbed by “internal and international provocateurs”. This is nothing but hectoring, Chinese style.
It is easy to see that what really worries Beijing is that New Delhi and Tokyo look like working towards establishing a new architecture for Asian security that would challenge Beijing’s threatening ways as far as its land or maritime neighbours are concerned. If such a project comes off, it will have both regional and global impact.
The Indian PM warned against “continuous threats” in the Indo-Pacific region. This was as much a reference to territorial disputes between Japan and China in the East China Sea as between China ruffling the feathers of its neighbours in the South China Sea, which of late Beijing has begun to claim as its own lake, forgetting that international waterways are subject to international laws of passage. Couched in this formulation is also Indian anxiety about China’s aggressive approach to capturing rights in the Indian Ocean through India’s South Asian neighbours.
By drawing the link of seamless unity between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific, New Delhi and Tokyo are sending a positive signal to neighbours who also happen to be frightened neighbours of China. The signal is that India and Japan are planning to be the joint linchpin of a new security system to which Burma, South Korea, the Philippines and Vietnam may be attracted, and in time Australia.
This is a signal moment for Indian diplomacy. A strong security-related tieup with Tokyo obviously goes well beyond just trade and investment issues or those relating to discrete military exchanges and dialogue. We are seeing the beginnings of a new quest here. To sustain the momentum, India needs to avoid domestic political disequilibriums.
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