China on mind, PM Narendra Modi readies for Tokyo visit from October 28

Closer defence ties to counter China will be on the agenda for India and Japan when Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits Tokyo on October 28 on a two-day bilateral visit. 

Modi’s trip to Japan will be rounded off by a visit to the Asean summit in Singapore, where India will sketch out its stance on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), according to senior government officials. 

India and Japan have a close diplomatic and business engagement under the framework of the Special Strategic and Global Partnership. Regional security will be one of the most important issues on the table during the fifth annual summit meeting between Modi and his Japan counterpart Shinzo Abe. A closer strategic alliance between naval authorities of both countries is expected. This comes on the backdrop of China stepping up its naval patrolling in key routes on which international commerce flows in the Asia-Pacific region. 

In the upcoming visit, joint military exercises in this zone — the South China sea — apart from a higher collaboration on allied activities such as weather monitoring will be focused on, a senior diplomatic source said. Talks will also be held on enhancing and a plan to upgrade two-plus-two security talks to the ministerial level. The Japan Self-Defence Forces has the world’s eighth-largest military budget, despite officially having a limited mandate. 

Along with the US and Australia, the nations are also part of a quad grouping that was revived in 2017 and seeks closer cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, with an aim to counter China’s ever growing influence in the region. 

Bullet train loses speed

Further development assistance from Tokyo to facilitate infrastructure construction across India is also on the agenda. “The high speed rail corridor between Ahmedabad and Mumbai is set to be a bellweather for future assistance. The Japanese have raised some issues with regard to the progress and we are looking into it,” another senior government official said. 

The issues vary from a slow rate of land acquisition, farmer agitation in certain parts of Maharashtra, labour issues and active resistance by political parties like the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena who have stopped geological survey teams in some areas, according to a Japanese official involved with the project. 

Last month, India signed an agreement with primary financier for the project — Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) — that has agreed to provide an official development assistance loan of Rs 55 billion as the first tranche of an estimated Rs 1.1 trillion. JICA has agreed to fund 81 per cent of the project cost of Rs 880.87 billion ($12 billion), through a 50-year loan at an interest rate of 0.1 per cent and a moratorium on repayments up to 15 years.  

Tackling trade 

Modi may find talks on RCEP more difficult to roll through. Led by the 10-member Association of the Southeast Asian Nations bloc, RCEP trade ministers adopted a joint proposal last week to decide on the broad contours of the mega-regional deal by the end of 2018. This was suggested through the adoption of a “package of year-end deliverables”. 

However, trade negotiators from New Delhi and senior commerce department officials, who were present in the latest discussions in Singapore last week, have said the package mentions only four major chapters of the goods trade, with the vast majority still seeing no progress. 

It was also silent on greater market access for the services trade — an area of prime interest to India. 

“But India is committed to making a final attempt at reaching a deal before November, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to visit Singapore for the 33rd Asean Summit,” an official said. The latest talks, attended by Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu and his counterparts across Asia, got stuck with India being attacked for delaying a consensus on the RCEP as a whole, he added. 

The RCEP is a proposed pact between 10 Asean economies and six others (New Zealand, Australia, China, India, Japan and South Korea) with which the grouping has free-trade agreements (FTAs). So far, 23 rounds of talks have concluded, apart from six minister-level meets.