India – Japan Cooperation

Recently, Indian and Japanese warships conducted naval exercises in the Indian Ocean
The Japanese Maritime Self-Defence Force described the manoeuvres as designed to “promote mutual understanding” and consisted of four warships, two from each country.
The Japanese navy has become one of the principal partners of the Indian Navy.
Indian naval ships take part in the exercise, both bilaterally with their Japanese counterparts and as part of the Malabar Exercises, which include the United States.

In the last 22 years, India-Japan relations have transformed particularly in the security dimension as both the countries have common outlook over security challenges in the surrounding region.
Eg: G4 countries which do have commonality of interest.
India and Japan can restrict the powers of China by engaging with various countries who also face the chinese threat and the best route can be via conducting different exercises like naval exercise, military exercise etc.
Eg: Last year, India and Japan joined the Philippines and USA for conducting exercises in the south china sea.
Even, Japan is in close vicinity of India through which they can conduct Anti-submarine warfare as well as Maritime patrol warfare for the interoperability of the vessels.
Thus, it indicates that like minded countries can join hands in order to counter chinese presence and it can be done by conducting such exercises.

In the span of 2014-2019, the relationship has evolved extra ordinarily and as of now Japan is the 3rd largest investor in India.
The challenging point for both the countries is the presence of China all around whether it is the south china sea or pacific ocean or the Indian Ocean.
In some continents, Japan and India constraints to counter chinese moves which is the major drawback for the evolving relationship.
As of now, China faces problems with all the South-east Asian countries which can be proved as an opportunity for India and Japan to join hands and collectively counter China for which maritime cooperation should be strengthened.
Thus, other countries should also help in shaping the relations of India and Japan and as far as Malacca strait is concerned, India along with Japan has to safeguard it because it can be choked easily.
Hence, China cannot be curtailed but can be restrained with the help of collective decisions by major and middle countries especially by collaborating with the South East Asian countries.

China has made its way by constructing various pipelines via land for the Oil supply but still China is dependent on sea routes to a large extent.
It can be tackled by forming a formidable maritime squad because in order to make our presence in the region we need friends which are our neighbouring countries. eg: Quad (+)
Thus, India has to reduce its dependence on China in order to strengthen its relations with other countries.

India can open its Economy to Japan in terms of Skill India program, Make-in India program, Automobile, Infrastructure, IT, maritime security etc.
The trade between both the countries is growing but it should have a wider extension in various areas.
Hence, both the countries should work on the complementary areas where both are getting benefitted.
India should get an opportunity for becoming the manufacturing hub, technological hub, sea power and it should get permanent membership at the United Nations for which Japan can support India.
Hence, diversification in the economy is the need of the hour.

There are 2 broader areas of concern for Japan as far as India is concerned and they are as follows:

The opening of Indian economy in various areas is very slow which might affect Japanese trade because of certain restrictions in India.
The pulling out of India from RCEP is a major disappointment for Japan because it was looking forward for India to join the RCEP in order to strengthen its relations.

Thus, both the countries should resolve their concerns by mutual understanding on various interests which are common for them.

Japan has always been defensive instead of being offensive but now India and Japan should join hands and try being offensive in order to tackle the chinese presence.
Japan has advanced technology especially in terms of warship technology which can be utilised by India in the upcoming future.
Thus, India needs to strengthen its democracy by working upon the arrears of its relations with Japan in order to restrain China in the maritime domain.

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