At the upcoming summit in New Delhi, Kishida and Modi would "review and strengthen the bilateral cooperation in diverse areas as well as exchange views on regional and global issues of mutual interest to advance their partnership for peace, stability and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond.
Come Saturday, March 19, 2022, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will hopefully be in New Delhi for the much-awaited 14th India-Japan annual prime minister-level summit. There are high expectations of this visit.
Observers say the upcoming summit between Kishida and India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi is sure to give fresh momentum to the already fast-growing ties between the two nations. In recent years, Prime Minister Modi has played a very important role in the growth of Indo-Japanese ties. He visited Japan in September 2014 and October 2018. During his visits, the two nations signed several key agreements, including "Special Strategic & Global Partnership" and a memorandum of cooperation on healthcare. At the East Asia Summit in Bangkok in November 2019, Modi launched the Indo-Pacific Oceans' Initiative (IPOI) with Japan as its lead partner.
At the upcoming summit in New Delhi, Prime Ministers Kishida and Modi would "review and strengthen the bilateral cooperation in diverse areas as well as exchange views on regional and global issues of mutual interest to advance their partnership for peace, stability and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond." They may take a close look at the progress on several India-Japan agreements, including the $17 billion Mumbai-Ahmedabad high speed "Shinkansen" bullet train project. The bullet train project is going slow. Largely funded by loans from Japan's International Cooperation Agency, it was inaugurated in 2017. It was due to be completed by 2022 but is going late.
Prime Minister Kishida may be inclined to discuss the current situation in Ukraine. Tokyo and New Delhi have had divergent approaches to this issue. Japan has joined several Western countries in announcing sanctions against Russia for its war in Ukraine. During an online Quad summit convened by the United States earlier this month, Kishida took a firm line on "Russian aggression."
India has stayed neutral in the conflict to contribute to resolving it in a peaceful way. New Delhi abstained from voting in the resolutions critical of Russia at the United Nations Security Council, General Assembly, Human Rights Council and International Atomic Energy Agency.
This divergence between Toyo and New Delhi on the Ukraine issue is, however, highly unlikely to cause any serious strain in relations between the two nations. Prime Minister Kishida is an old, experienced hand in the business of statecraft. He had been Japan's longest-serving post-war foreign minister (2012–17). He visited India as Foreign Minister in 2015. He seems to be well aware that, like Japan, India is a democratic nation and has its independent decision-making process rooted in its own ground realities.
It may be noted that Kishida's Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi is for better ties with India. In his telephonic talks with India's Foreign Minister S Jaishankar in November last, the two nations are said to have shared their "strong opposition" to any unilateral attempt to change the "status quo by force" in the East China Sea and the South China Sea.
The two foreign ministers resolved to establish a free and open Indo-Pacific region through bilateral cooperation and quadrilateral cooperation involving Australia and the US. They reached an agreement in the areas of cyberspace and, economic security, climate change. They also agreed to deepen cooperation on economic security through establishing resilient supply chains.
(The author is a New Delhi-based journalist)
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