Accusing Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of "dividing" China and India, a state-run Chinese daily today said Indo-Japan ties face "huge uncertainty" in view of rise of BRICS and emerging Sino-Indian cooperation.
"BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) agreed establish their own development bank, ushering Sino-Indian strategic cooperation into a new historical era," said an article in the state-run Global Times' web edition on the current visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Japan.
"Beijing's improving maritime strategies and the development of China-India strategic relations will inevitably exert far-reaching influence upon Japan's strategic resources, channels and markets. Consequently, dividing China and India has become a key issue for Abe," said the ruling Communist Party-run newspaper known for its usually nationalistic views.
"Tokyo and New Delhi must consider the coexistence of China, Japan and the US in the region when promoting their security cooperation," it said.
"As two Asian powers, how the growing intimacy between Japan and India coordinates with US "rebalancing to Asia" strategy and cooperates with BRICS member states will wield direct influence upon regional architecture. Therefore this solicits plenty of attention," it said.
It said security is another area of cooperation between India and Japan.
"When Abe travelled to India early this year, he proposed beefing up the cooperation between the two national security committees. This time, they will probably launch a "two plus two" mechanism of diplomacy and defence to intensify their collaboration in air and sea," it said.
During his India visit, Abe increased the official development assistance to India to 210 billion yen (USD 2.02 billion) and provided a programme worth USD 4.5 billion to obtain orders for Japanese nuclear power firms, it said.
Tokyo attaches great importance to India's vast market and infrastructure projects, it said.
However, Modi is more inclined to attract investment from Japanese firms to help with the manufacturing industry.
"All in all, the Japan-India relationship, in the context of current international politics, witnesses too many uncertain actors in its development," it said.
China despises Abe for his nationalistic stand over the East China Sea dispute with Beijing and calls him a "troublemaker".
