Handshake with the East

India-Japan ties become ever deeper

Japan's continuing outreach to India cannot be denied. After the groundbreaking and rare foreign visit by its emperor and empress last year, it is the turn of its dynamic prime minister, Shinzo Abe - the first occasion when a Japanese prime minister is chief guest at India's Republic Day celebrations. The symbolism of a new age of Indo-Japanese co-operation is, of course, notable. But this was more than just a ceremonial visit. The various agreements that were signed - eight in total - and the two prime ministers' joint statement revealed a bilateral relationship that is inexorably, if slowly, growing stronger.

Japan was at "the heart" of India's Look East policy, according to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. But it might be equally accurate to say that China lay at the heart of what was said and unsaid about this meeting. The joint declaration emphasised security co-operation for stability in "the region", given "changes in the strategic environment". This is a fairly clear reference to the fact that China's rise - peaceful, according to assurances from Beijing - has nevertheless forced India and Japan closer. Recent aggressiveness from China on the disputed border with India and in the disputed sea off its coast will have underlined the need for a closer partnership. The two prime ministers spoke specifically about the path-breaking agreement to move towards joint manufacturing of the Utility Seaplane-2 aircraft - which, while it has peacetime uses, is also capable of military use, which is a major departure for Japanese trade. Most intriguingly, the new national security architecture that Mr Abe is putting in place was given special mention, with the two prime ministers saying that India's national security advisor would henceforth regularly meet his newly established counterpart in Japan. And that the two countries' naval forces will exercise together again next year, this time in the Pacific, is a clear signal to Beijing, as well. There is, of course, much ground still to be traversed. Nuclear co-operation has not gone as far as it should. A civil nuclear agreement should not be held hostage to long-entrenched positions on either side. Both prime ministers may need to intervene with their bureaucracies to ensure that the agreement happens.

The second rung of the Indo-Japanese relationship, after security policy, is infrastructure. Japan has made vast contributions to India's urban and transport infrastructure, and that appears set to continue. The Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) and the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor are indicative of how foreign expertise and funding, when combined with pushes from the highest level at New Delhi, can lead to the implementation of truly transformational ideas. The DMIC, if it becomes reality, will be the first real government-driven urbanisation plan in India's recent history; and it will only deepen the relationship between India and Japan. What is essential is that India's slow-moving foreign affairs officialdom should not squander this vital moment. Tokyo has a hand stretched out, and New Delhi must take it. China has so far been relatively silent on Mr Abe's visit; but, even were it to respond differently, it must be ignored.