India-Japanese brotherhood : Essay, Article, Short note, Paragraph, Importance

India-Japan Relation: Essay, Article, Short note, Paragraph, Importance

Introduction

India and Japan are two of the largest and not to forget, the oldest democracies of Asia having a relatively high degree of agreement on matters of political, economic and strategic interests; they view each other as partners that try to and can successfully cope up with and withstand the various regional and international challenges.  The diplomatic ties between the countries have traditionally been strong; a reason for this may have been the strong similarities in the culture that both the countries follow. Guided by common cultural interests, including the practice of Buddhism, tolerance, pluralism, democracy etc. both the nations have since time immemorial stood by the side of the other in matters of state and policy.

To put a date on it, India and Japan have had cordial diplomatic ties since India’s Independence before which British India and Japan were thought of as enemy countries.  But a lot has changed since then, India has a lot of Japanese companies setting up manufacturing plants, namely Sony, Toyota, Honda etc. Also in terms of trade, India provides a huge and ready market for all types of Japanese products which has provided an impetus to the growth of Japanese economy. A lot of financial investment has been done by Japan into India, so much so that the entire Delhi metro project was funded by the Japanese. While a lot of memorandums and exercises are conducted between India- Japan as well as with other countries, one exercise that a majority of Indians know is the “Malabar Naval Exercise”. This is one of the drills that the navies of India and Japan conduct under their defence partnership along with the US Navy.

Agreement on defence co-operation

Recently both the countries have entered into an agreement on “defence co-operation”. This comes with their acknowledgment of an increasing need to cope with and prepare for an increasingly rising and assertive neighbour- China. The superpower China has been rapidly increasing their economy since the early 2000’s and while other nations looked on in anticipation of what is to come, India and Japan came together to help each other grow phenomenally, and till date have been able to do so.  Another reason why these nations are now suddenly increasing their military ties are due to the increasing tensions in the sub-continent in the wake of North Korea doing its nuclear tests.

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Both the nations have been collaborating in terms of sharing technology as well conducting different drills together for their military forces. Recently both the countries have decided to ramp up their overall military engagements and invest in military production, heavily on innovation and production of dual-use technologies. Additionally India has signed a deal to buy aircrafts from Japan to update their navy, along with which there will now be dialogues and conferences related to research in the area of ‘Unmanned Ground Vehicles and Robotics’.  Terrorism is another issue that has arrested the attention of both of these developing powers and they have thus come together and planned out to collaborate on a series of counter-terrorism operations in order to make the area safer for all those in and around it. The naval exercise that is held regularly, now may include ASW (Anti-Submarine Warfare) training in an effort to expand this defence cooperation.

While India may seem to be the weaker nation and one that is benefitting more as compared to Japan, it isn’t completely true. There are a lot of benefits that Japan is getting out of India. Well, for starters India’s naval power is par excellence and training with them will only lend more power to the Japanese troops. Moreover the geographic location of the Indian Sub-continent is such that it can provide for strong security in South-East Asia. Also with increasing Anti-Japanese riots happening within Japan and the unrest happening around the nation, Japan needs a strong and trustworthy partner who can provide stability and support in their endeavours.

Conclusion

So much so is their support and appreciation for the Indian Partnership, that on a survey taken 96% of the sample agreed to India bringing a positive impact to the Japanese side while only a meagre 4% thought otherwise. And the effects of a partnership with Japan can be very clearly seen in the country and thus it wouldn’t be a mistake to claim that this is one partnership that can take both the nations to greater heights.