India & Japan strives for peace, prosperity & permanence
Relevant For General Study Paper 2:-UPSC-CSE 2019-20 FOUNDATION & TEST BATCHES WILL START JUNE 2019
The end of January is about a good time as any to follow time honoured traditions and to get down to the serious business of annual resolutions and to-do lists. To be sure, the holiday downtime for the two governments has been brief: Foreign Minister Taro Kono already visited New Delhi in the very first week of 2019, and among others, met with his counterpart, Smt. Sushma Swaraj.
The past year was another watershed in the ever-deepening ties between India and Japan, also helped by the close relationship between the two PMs (Prime Ministers). The vision statement of the two PMs from October 2018, and further articulation from diplomatic missions and observers have rather precisely detailed the way forward.
India’s Act East Policy and Japan’s effort toward a free and open Indo-Pacific have again been reiterated as complementing each other, and these two policies are expected to continue playing a central role in the bilateral. Regional connectivity and broader cooperation (trilaterals for instance) will play a bigger role, as will private companies.
Coming back to our wish list of what India and Japan might want to achieve over the next 11 months- keeping in mind the above context- it truly is a short list of three items (or 3 P’s, if you will).
People- It has been stated that connectivity is not about infrastructure, alone but also people’s connectivity. Japan quite recently has allowed for a greater number of foreign workers to enter the economy, than ever before. This seems to be a response to both, the demographics that have already caused a labour shortage, and the flagship events that will be hosted by Japan over the next 18 months. Japan will be witnessing the coronation of a new Emperor, the G-20 Summit, the Seventh Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD7), the Rugby World Cup, and the summer Olympics games next year. As a natural allies, it makes imminent sense to explore how India could skill and train workers for both, Japan’s long-term requirements, and the shorter event-based demands.
It is a useful jab in the ribs when we look at the statistics of how many Indians currently reside and work in Japan. According to estimates, the number of Indians (normally a large pool of talent almost anywhere in the world) living in Japan is a mere 30,000, contrasted with say Nepal, which has a 100,000 strong diaspora in Japan. But measures like aligning the two India’s and Japan’s respective healthcare policies could address this anomaly. Initiatives like the Technical Intern Training Program (TITP) has the potential for recruiting nurses and caregivers from India’s North East to hone their skills in Japan.
Other than employment, people to people exchanges are exceedingly important. Whether via tourism or other structured measures like youth exchanges, sport, research, education and cultural activities. The lack of people to people interaction and engagement worryingly has the potential to frustrate the best efforts strongest government efforts.
Ambassador Hiramatsu very succinctly has stated, “Connectivity is ultimately about our people’s future and bringing them closer. It will facilitate free movement of people and goods, creating a new and better value chain. You will trade with and get to know different people. You will visit different places and learn about their history and cultures. Better connectivity will lead us to prosperity, stability, and ultimately, peace.”
Private sector- so far, the marquee projects that define the India Japan relationship, have been largely executed by the public sector on the Indian side, and with great success too.
However, to increase the scale and scope of cooperation projects, we need to adopt the Japanese model, which counts on the private sector as an equal partner to support the efforts of public sector institutions like JICA, JBIC and others.
Private companies could be the enablers, as well as the greatest beneficiaries of India Japan alliance extends beyond the two countries.
Both PMs have articulated that connectivity infrastructure should be developed and used in an open, transparent and non-exclusive manner, based on international standards and responsible debt financing practices. Putting this concept of “quality infrastructure” to work, Japan and India are cooperating on regional connectivity projects. In Bangladesh, for instance, India will construct roads, while Japan will provide bridges to connect them; and Japan will construct the Jamuna Railway Bridge, on which Indian rolling stock will ply. In Myanmar, both partners will align housing, school and electricity projects. In Sri Lanka, the two countries are cooperating with Sri Lanka for the development of LNG-related infrastructure. And in Kenya, the two partners are jointly developing a cancer hospital and supporting small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
A strong business to business platform is essential for sustaining the pivotal government to government initiatives that are now being envisioned. Alternately, similar to the previous point, lack of a sustained economic relationship, could potentially jeopardise the highly effective and ambitious Government to government partnership. It is vital to align private sector engagements with government initiatives.
Substantively, the two nations have decided to establish an India-Japan Business Platform to enhance exchanges between businesses to develop industrial corridors and network in the region, including Africa. It has also been stated that not only bilateral but also trilateral partnership will drive the . Notably, Japan, India and the United States (think JAI from the last G-20) are engaged in ‘operative discussions on concrete projects’ on connectivity.
Partnerships- encouraged by the strength of the bilateral relationship, as well as the proof of concept of having delivered challenging projects in India, India and Japan are now looking at third countries in which to cooperate. There is the huge opportunity to expand the partnership own a case by case basis with the third or even fourth partner. This trilateral or plurilateral model could work as marvellously well on the economic side, as it has for Indian and Japan on the security side. An economic alliance can, in many ways, be more liberating, as it allows India and Japan to work with partners with whom a purely security trilateral might not easily have worked.
India and Japan would also do well to jointly consider what the RCEP might mean for the bilateral, and this mega FTA, as and when signed, could be leveraged to further drive the relationship.
It would be a good year, if India and Japan would be able to completely address even one of these three P’s. However, we must recognise that these initiatives cannot be achieved in the short span of one year. But these are worthy aspirations, that could bring us closer to our common ambitions of peace (in the region), prosperity (for all) and permanence (sustainability).
