Should India form military alliance with Japan?

Voldemort

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 25, 2013
Messages
1,102
Likes
727
Country flag
Asia's New Security Trifecta

by Jaswant Singh


NEW DELHI – Winter is India's diplomatic high season, with the cool, sunny weather forming an ideal backdrop for pageantry, photo ops at the Taj Mahal or Delhi's Red Fort, and bilateral deal-making. But this winter has been particularly impressive, with leaders from Japan and South Korea visiting to advance the cause of security cooperation in Asia.

The first to arrive was South Korean President Park Geun-hye. Despite a strong economic foundation, the bilateral relationship has long lacked a meaningful security dimension. But China's recent assertiveness – including its unilateral declaration last November of a new Air Defense Identification Zone, which overlaps about 3,000 square kilometers of South Korea's own ADIZ, in the Sea of Japan – has encouraged Park to shore up her country's security ties with India.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's unpredictable and often provocative policies represent an additional impetus for improved ties – as do China's increasingly visible plans to weaken South Korea's alliance with the United States. Not surprisingly, the discussions during Park's four-day visit focused on grand strategy, and included detailed talks on maritime security and naval shipbuilding.

Nuclear energy also featured prominently on the agenda, owing to both countries' dependence on energy imported through dangerous sea-lanes. In 2008, South Korea, as a member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, supported the waiver granting India access to civilian nuclear technology and fuel from other countries – both of which it had been denied since becoming a nuclear-weapons power in 1974. Indeed, India's nuclear tests are what initially spurred the NSG's formation. South Korea's support of India's civilian nuclear ambitions earned it high praise in India and helped to advance bilateral civilian nuclear cooperation.

This budding strategic partnership is undoubtedly important. But when it comes to the regional balance of power, India's deepening ties with Japan are even more consequential.

While India's relationship with the United States has been faltering of late, following the arrest and mistreatment of an Indian consular official in New York, its ties with Japan are flourishing. The visit last December of Japanese Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko was the clearest sign yet of a de facto alliance between the two democracies.

The imperial couple last visited India more than a half-century ago, as Crown Prince and Princess, when India was part of the non-aligned movement and Japan was happy with a security guarantee from the US. But, with China's rise having shifted Asia's balance of power, Indian and Japanese leaders have been seeking new security assurances, and the visit by the Emperor and Empress was the clearest signal Japan could send concerning the value it places on this emerging alliance.

The search for greater security was even more explicit in January, when Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera spent four days in India discussing the specifics of enhanced defense cooperation. During the meeting, Onodera and his Indian counterpart affirmed their countries' intention to "strengthen the Strategic and Global Partnership between Japan and India," including "measures ranging from regular joint-combat exercises and military exchanges to cooperation in anti-piracy, maritime security, and counter-terrorism." In fact, later this year, bilateral naval exercises will be held in Japanese waters for the first time – sending a powerful signal to China.

But Indo-Japanese relations must extend beyond the realm of security – something that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has pursued enhanced bilateral ties more vigorously than any other Japanese leader, seems to grasp. Convinced that a strong India is in Japan's best interests, and vice versa, Abe hopes to create a new "arc of freedom and prosperity" connecting Asia's two major democratic economies.

While Abe could have done more during his recent visit to India to advance this vision –for example, by meeting with Indian opposition leader Narendra Modi, who may become the country's next prime minister – it seems certain that such a relationship will be achieved in the coming years. Japan has already surpassed the US as one of India's largest sources of foreign direct investment, accounting for inflows totaling $2.2 billion last year. And the two countries recently tripled their US dollar currency-swap arrangement, bringing it to $50 billion.

Abe, India's chief guest at this year's Republic Day celebrations, also rightly views enhanced trade as a key element in deepening the bilateral relationship, thereby contributing to substantially increased security. But bilateral trade amounted to only $18.4 billion in 2011-2012 – far smaller than India-China trade and a pittance compared to Japan-China trade.

Even with a significant deepening of ties, however, bilateral relationships alone will be inadequate to counterbalance China. Achieving an internal Asian balance of power will require India, Japan, and South Korea to build a tripartite security arrangement, which can be achieved only if Japanese and South Korean leaders overcome their historical animosities.

As Winston Churchill declared in his famous 1946 speech in Zurich, "We cannot afford to drag forward across the years that are to come the hatreds and revenges which have sprung from the injuries of the past." Just as France and Germany pursued reconciliation in order to build a better future in the years following Churchill's declaration, Japan and South Korea must learn to tame the hatreds and injuries of the past in order to build, with India, a structure of peace and a more prosperous future for Asia.

Jaswant Singh considers India's deepening strategic relationships with South Korea and Japan. - Project Syndicate
 

Voldemort

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 25, 2013
Messages
1,102
Likes
727
Country flag
How the Japan-India alliance could redraw Asia's geopolitical map

Mr Abe's presence at India's national day parade, which included a display of the nuclear-armed country's military might, symbolised the emerging Japan-India strategic alliance. This partnership holds the potential to shape Asian geopolitics in much the same way as China's rise or America's Asian "pivot".

Since Japan and India unveiled a "strategic and global partnership" during Mr Abe's first stint as prime minister in 2006-2007, their engagement has deepened at pace. The driving force behind their growing collaboration is China's increasing assertiveness in Asia.

Through persistent nibbling and other strong-arm tactics, a resurgent China is seeking to disturb the territorial status quo. While most international attention has focused on Chinese incursions in the South and East China Seas, China has also been active along its long Himalayan border with India and in the waters of the Indian Ocean.

Asia's balance of power will be shaped largely by events in East Asia and the Indian Ocean. By linking these two regions, the Indo-Japanese entente – underpinned by close maritime cooperation – can ensure Asian power equilibrium and help safeguard vital sea lanes.

Japan and India value, according to their joint statement last weekend, "freedom, democracy and rule of law" and seek "to contribute jointly to the peace, stability and prosperity of the region and the world, taking into account changes in the strategic environment" – an allusion to the ascent of a muscular China.

India and Japan, natural allies strategically located on opposite flanks of Asia, are energy-poor countries heavily reliant on oil and gas imports from the Arabian Gulf region. The two maritime democracies are seriously concerned by mercantilist efforts to assert control over energy supplies and the transport routes for them. So, the maintenance of a peaceful and lawful maritime domain, including unimpeded freedom of navigation, is critical to their security and economic well-being.

This is why they have held joint naval exercises since 2012. These are just one sign of a shift from emphasising shared values to seeking to protect common interests. During Mr Abe's visit, India also invited Japan to join this year's US-Indian naval manoeuvres, known by their Indian name "Malabar".

The Indo-Japanese relationship, remarkably free of any strategic dissonance or bilateral dispute, traces its roots to the introduction of Buddhism in Japan in the sixth century. The Todaiji Temple in the ancient capital city of Nara is home to Japan's most famous statue – a gilt bronze image of Lord Buddha.

The statue's allegorical eyes-opening ceremony in the year 752 was conducted by a priest from India in the presence of Emperor Shomu, who declared himself a servant of the "Three Treasures" – the Buddha, Buddhist law and the monastic order. Japan's cultural heritage from India extends to Sanskrit influence on the Japanese language.

The Japanese imperial couple's Indian tour in early December was a watershed moment in Japan-India relations. In the more than 2,600-year history of the Japanese monarchy, no emperor had previously been to India, although India has traditionally been respected in Japan as Tenjiku, or the heavenly country of Buddhism.

Today, Japan is a critical source of capital and commercial technology for India. Indeed, there cannot be a better partner for India's development than the country that was Asia's first modern economic-success story, inspiring other Asian states.

Japan, spearheading Asia's industrial and technology advances since the nineteenth century, was also the first country in the non-Western world to emerge as a world power in modern history – a success that opened the path to its imperial conquests.

Since 2011, Japan has emerged as India's largest source of foreign direct investment from a major industrialised nation. India overtook China a decade ago as the largest recipient of Japan's official development assistance, which includes loans, grants and technical assistance.

For Japan, India is central to both its economic-revival and security-building strategies.

Mr Abe's dynamic leadership and control of both houses of parliament is aiding his moves to return Japan to the right track. "Abenomics", for example, has succeeded in weakening the yen, making exports more competitive and boosting corporate profits.

As part of his broader strategy of "proactive pacifism" to create a web of interlocking partnerships with countries in China's periphery, Mr Abe has pushed for close, enduring collaboration with New Delhi. His Indian counterpart, Manmohan Singh, has said that Indians "see Japan as a natural and indispensable partner in our quest for stability and peace in the vast" Indo-Pacific region, marked by the confluence of the Indian and Pacific Oceans.

A growing congruence of strategic interests led India and Japan to sign a Joint Declaration on Security Cooperation in 2008, a significant milestone in building a stable balance of power in Asia. This joint declaration was modelled on Japan's 2007 defence cooperation accord with Australia – the only other country with whom Japan, a US military ally, has a security-cooperation arrangement. The India-Japan security declaration, in turn, spawned a similar Indian-Australian accord in 2009.

The budding alliance between Japan and India holds the potential to redraw the Asian geopolitical map. Through close collaboration with each other and with other like-minded Asian states, Asia's two main democracies must lead the effort to build freedom, prosperity and stability in Asia.

How the Japan-India alliance could redraw Asia’s geopolitical map | The National
 

Voldemort

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 25, 2013
Messages
1,102
Likes
727
Country flag
India's "Look East" policy is a manifestation of its own strategic intent to compete for influence in the wider Asia-Pacific region. Just as China will not concede India's primacy in South Asia and the Indian Ocean region, India seems unwilling to accept Southeast and East Asia as China's sphere of influence. Just as China's rise is viewed positively in the South Asian region among the small countries surrounding India with which New Delhi has had difficult relations, India's rise is viewed in positive-sum terms among China's neighbors throughout East and Southeast Asia. Over the last two decades, India has sought to enhance its economic and security ties with those Northeast and Southeast Asian nations (Mongolia, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, and Australia) that worry about China more than any other major power. As China's growing strength creates uneasiness in the region, India's balancing role is welcome within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in order to influence China's behavior in cooperative directions. While the Southeast Asian leaders seek to deter China from utilizing its growing strength for coercive purposes and to maintain regional autonomy, Indian strategic analysts favor an Indian naval presence in the South China Sea and the Pacific Ocean to counter Chinese naval presence in the Indian Ocean. On maritime security, Southeast Asians seem more willing to cooperate with India than China, especially in the Strait of Malacca.

A key element of India's Pacific outreach has been regular naval exercises, port calls, security dialogues, and more than a dozen defense cooperation agreements. India has welcomed Vietnam's offer of berthing rights in Na Trang Port in the South China Sea, and news reports suggest that India might offer BrahMos cruise missiles and other military hardware at "friendship prices" to Vietnam. The conclusion of free-trade agreements with Singapore, South Korea, Malaysia, Japan, and the ASEAN, coupled with New Delhi's participation in multilateral forums such as the East Asia Summit and the ASEAN Plus Eight defense ministers' meetings, have also reinforced strategic ties. India's determination to strengthen its strategic partnership with Japan and Vietnam, commitment to pursue joint oil exploration with Hanoi in the South China Sea waters in the face of Chinese opposition, and an emphasis on the freedom of navigation are signs of India maneuvering to be seen as a counterweight to Chinese power in East Asia. New Delhi is also scaling up defense ties with Tokyo, Seoul, and Canberra.

The US-India partnership is also emerging as an important component of India's strategy to balance China's power. India seeks US economic and technological assistance. It helps this relationship that India's longtime security concerns—China and Pakistan—also now happen to be the United States' long-term and immediate strategic concerns as well. Both the Bush and Obama administrations have encouraged India's involvement in a wider Asian security system to balance a rising China and declining Japan. Apparently, US weakness—real or perceived—invites Chinese assertiveness. Since the United States does not wish to see Asia dominated by a single hegemonic power or a coalition of states, India's economic rise is seen as serving Washington's long-term interests by ensuring that there be countervailing powers in Asia—China, Japan, and India, with the United States continuing to act as an "engaged offshore power balancer."

The "India factor" is increasingly entering the ongoing US policy debate over China. Asia-Pacific is now the Indo-Pacific, a term underlining the centrality of India in the new calculus of regional power. The 2010 US Quadrennial Defense Review talked of India's positive role as a "net security provider in the Indian Ocean and beyond." India's "Look East" policy, which envisions high-level engagement with "China-wary" nations (South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, and Australia), dovetails with the US policy of establishing closer ties with countries beyond Washington's traditional treaty partners to maintain US predominance. The US-Indian strategic engagement, coupled with India's expanding naval and nuclear capabilities and huge economic potential, have made India loom larger on China's radar screen. An editorial in a Shanghai daily last November lamented the fact that "India will not allow itself to stay quietly between the US and China. It wants to play triangle affairs with the duo, and will do anything it can to maximize its benefit out of it. Therefore, China will find it hard to buy India over." The Chinese fear that the Indian-American cooperation in defense, high-tech R&D, nuclear, space, and maritime spheres would prolong US hegemony and prevent the establishment of a post-American, Sino-centric hierarchical regional order in Asia. This tightening relationship, and the possibility that what is presently a tilt on India's part could turn into a full-fledged alignment, is a major reason for recent deterioration in Chinese-Indian relations.

Just as China has become more assertive vis-à-vis the United States, Indian policy toward China is becoming tougher. India's evolving Asia strategy reflects the desire for an arc of partnerships with China's key neighbors—in Southeast Asia and further east along the Asia-Pacific rim—and the United States that would help neutralize the continuing Chinese military assistance and activity around its own territory and develop counter-leverages of its own vis-à-vis China to keep Beijing sober.
 

jmj_overlord

Regular Member
Joined
Sep 12, 2013
Messages
694
Likes
156
a military alliance with japan or s.korea will only irk the chinese more, maybe forcing them to take aggressive measures on countries like taiwan, vietnam, etc.....also chinese can form an even stronger alliance with our already estranged neighbours
 

abhi_the _gr8_maratha

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 15, 2014
Messages
2,193
Likes
609
Country flag
japan is naturally ,culturally, economically and strategically important nation
.
position of japan is strategically important and can be used to tackle threat from china .
.
the culture is also suits that of indian culture because of of buddhism in japan
.
india is refered as tenjiku meaning heaven in japan
.
alliance with japan is a win win situation for india
 

Voldemort

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 25, 2013
Messages
1,102
Likes
727
Country flag
a military alliance with japan or s.korea will only irk the chinese more, maybe forcing them to take aggressive measures on countries like taiwan, vietnam, etc.....also chinese can form an even stronger alliance with our already estranged neighbours
Only country with which China can seriously have stronger alliance is Pakistan, and it can hardly get any stronger than it already is. If China can have military and strategic relationship with our worst enemy, whats stopping us from having a full fledged similar relationship with Japan, S Korea or Vietnam.

I think we much take advantage of China's disputes with so many neighbors. See the aggresive stance taken by China in every dispute concerning her.
 

abhi_the _gr8_maratha

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 15, 2014
Messages
2,193
Likes
609
Country flag
yes economically it is, but is such a military alliance strong enough to take on chinese without american help ?
if you look at quality of chinese weapons, india alone can take on china but the problem is china have strong alliance with pakis and can use pakis in was resulting in two front line war which will make india weaker against china
.
so japan and india can take on china and pakistan easily
.
and simply there will be hidden help of america and vietnam , philippines etc.
 

no smoking

Senior Member
Joined
Aug 14, 2009
Messages
5,000
Likes
2,302
Country flag
a military alliance with japan or s.korea will only irk the chinese more, maybe forcing them to take aggressive measures on countries like taiwan, vietnam, etc
Why? I don't see the logic behind your conclusion. There is nothing this suggested "military alliance" can do in SCS, why china need to take aggressive measures on other countries instead of India or Japan?


also chinese can form an even stronger alliance with our already estranged neighbours
Still, WHY? We don't think that India has capability or political will to damage Chinese interest unless India decides to initiate a total war. The current relationship between China and Pakistan is already good enough to balance India's influence in South Asia. We don't need to do more.
 

BackToEast

Regular Member
Joined
Dec 17, 2010
Messages
46
Likes
1
Country flag
Yes ,India should form military alliance with Japan ,US, Russia..
 

SajeevJino

Long walk
Senior Member
Joined
Feb 21, 2012
Messages
6,017
Likes
3,364
Country flag
.


Yes we Should ..

Forming Military alliance with Jpas makes the Chinese puts into a Hells gate

The JMSDF is a Best Navy after the US and Russia ..they can take care of the Chinese Naval Forces and Air Forces with Their 10+ aegis Destroyers

If Chinese did any aggressive manners against any Asian Countries we and The Japs should do a Naval Exercise in that Region to Stop the Chinese Movement

we already seen The Viets happy to make a strong friendship with us ..
 

abhi_the _gr8_maratha

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 15, 2014
Messages
2,193
Likes
609
Country flag
India & Vietnam: Defence Cooperation, Economic Ties and a Strategic Partnership
.
.
read this article
.
india helped vietnam in every way .
india aiding vietnam by 100million dollar for 4 patrol vessel
.
india also trainin vietnamese crew for kilo class submarine and su30
.
There has
been a heavy traffic of high level
visitors between the two countries
that has led to a $ 45-million credit
line for a 200-MW hydel project built
by BHEL, offer of export of the Param
supercomputer and a breakthrough for
the Indian corporate sector though its
Vietnamese counterparts have
struggled.
.
india have helped vietnam in their freedom struggle against france also in war against america , not strategically but supported
.
chinese relations toward pakistan is much like seller and india is developing every sector of vietnam
 

Glint

Regular Member
Joined
Mar 22, 2014
Messages
273
Likes
187
Country flag
As far the military alliance goes, India wouldn't do such things openly.
To my knowledge India is known for being neutral during cold war too, Its a total different thing it actually favored Russia but India didn't join any alliance.

But "Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is seen by some to be an "Indophile" and, with rising tensions in territorial disputes with Japan's neighbors, has advocated closer security cooperation with India."

In other words, India does have military ties with Japan and its a strong one.
 

abhi_the _gr8_maratha

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 15, 2014
Messages
2,193
Likes
609
Country flag
Computing: Indian development
cooperation with Vietnam has seen a
strong focus on the computing sector.
Between 2007 and 2013, 12 of the 19
grants extended to Vietnam have
sought to boost High Performance
Computing (HPC) capabilities. These
grants include one extended in 2008
worth INR 130 million to set up a
PARAM supercomputer facility.[18]
With a peak computing speed of 524
Teraflops, the facility will assist with
bioinformatics, climatology and seismic
studies. [19] Another series of grants
totalling INR 255.8 million were also
extended to set up the Vietnam-India
Advanced Resource Centre in Hanoi.
Operational since 2011, [20] the centre
has helped the Vietnamese education
sector harness e-learning
technologies, provided the requisite
infrastructure for maintaining digital
libraries and web-portals, and has
spurred Geographic Information
System application development. [21]
A number of Indian IT companies have
also set up nearly 80 training centres
across Vietnam. [22] Additionally in
2008, India gifted computers worth INR
1 million to the Vietnam People's Navy
 

abhi_the _gr8_maratha

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 15, 2014
Messages
2,193
Likes
609
Country flag
Hydropower: Hydropower plants
generate over 30% of Vietnam's
electricity. [34] Among these, the 200
MW Nam Chien plant, for which the
Indian Exim Bank gave a US$ 45 million
Line of Credit in 2008, is among the
largest projects India is currently
financing in Vietnam. [35]Executed by
the public sector company, Bharat
Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), the
dam is expected to generate 814
million kWh of electricity per year that
will be fed into to the national grid.
[36] The 1st of the two turbines began
generating electricity in January 2013.
The 2nd turbine is expected to become
operational soon. [
 

Latest Replies

Global Defence

New threads

Articles

Top