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If you were to prepare a pithy list of India's top three friends in the world today, it is unlikely that you would name the United States, or the United Kingdom or France or even Germany – though all are having excellent relations with India right now.
If you ask me I would stop at two; just two! Japan and Russia, in that order. For the third spot there may be a contest between Israel and the US, though both have their own well determined agendas which do not gel with India's scheme of things – Palestine, Syria and Iran as far as Israel is concerned and a whole lot of issues, not just China and Pakistan, when it comes to the US.
The US may ostensibly win the race for the number three slot in my list of India's three best foreign policy partners for the simple reason that it is the sole superpower of the world and this status of Washington is unlikely to be challenged for the next couple of decades at least. But then partnering with the US is like running an egg-in-spoon race. The race itself is full of edge-of-the-seat excitements and the outcome is always tentative.
Moreover, with the US there is always another risk. You never know when you are an esteemed partner and when you become a liability. The US-Pakistan relations are an important reality check not just for the Indians but for anyone who wishes to get into the so-called good books of the Americans.
The Americans are known to be fast in finding new friends when it suits their national interest and faster in dumping them for the same reasons.
Like other major Western powers (read France particularly), the Americans have no qualms in arming India and Pakistan with lethal weapons simultaneously. Business is the sole mantra.
The Israelis are more sedate and steadfast as a strategic partner of India but this small, and yet militarily powerful, nation is more like a hot potato for India given the Israeli hatred to countries like Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon which makes it difficult for any ruling party in India in India to handle.
Japan and Russia are the only two countries with which India has no ideological or strategic differences.
With either of the two India does not have any troublesome issues that contiguous neighbours usually have. India has no boundary dispute with either of them and does not have a chequered past of fighting a one-to-one war with any of the two for the simple reason that India does not share borders with either of these. And yet India is not far from Japan or Russia.
Over the past one decade, Japan has climbed up the Indian strategic ladder, thanks to the China factor. In fact, the political proximity between India and Japan can be solely attributed to China's aggressive diplomatic and military posturing. China's increasingly assertive diplomacy and its never-stated but always practiced strategy of weaving a string of pearls around India has been directly proportional to India's tilt towards Japan.
But Japan has one more claim to be India's number one friend in today's world. It has been instrumental in silently revolutionizing India's growth story which is visible to the naked eye of the man on the street in India. Japan has emerged as a solid game changer for India in infrastructure growth. No other power on earth has been so pro-actively engaged with the Indians in beefing up the Indian infrastructure like Japan has.
Look at the number of ambitious infrastructure projects that the Japanese have not just been financing but also imparting their technical skills to make these happen. Delhi Metro Rail project was the first to have started with the Japanese financial and technical assistance over a decade ago. Now the Delhi Metro example is being emulated by over thirty Indian cities!
The upcoming mega projects like the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) and the Delhi Mumbai Freight Corridor are all set to eclipse the Delhi Metro glory in terms of the Japanese financial-technical assistance. The Chennai-Bengaluru corridor is another ambitious project in the impressive bouquet of Indo-Japanese global strategic partnership.
Japan has shown to the world how to win the Indian hearts – by stressing on sector-by-sector approach in the Indian infrastructural growth story. So much so that other powers like the UK, France and Germany too have dropped similar hints of focusing on sector-by-sector growth of India.
As far as Russia is concerned, the former superpower has had tried and tested strategic partnership with India for decades when the phrase 'strategic partnership' was not even coined. Russia is India's largest arms exporter. Russia has consciously kept the Indian strategic interests in mind and has taken care not to sell arms to Pakistan. This is despite Pakistan trying its best to cozy up to Russia in the recent past.
It is not a coincidence that the only two countries with which India has been having an institutionalized mechanism of annual summits are Russia and Japan – with Russia since 2000 and with Japan since 2006.
Ironically, the two countries that India is great friends with are deeply suspicious, and even inimical, with each other – Russia and Japan. This provides a wonderful diplomatic opportunity for India as New Delhi can act as a catalyst for improving Russia-Japan ties. Such a move from India is not yet in the public domain but it is a matter of when, not if, that India acts as a bridge between Russia and Japan, even as Moscow and Tokyo are already showing signs of rapprochement.
Why Japan and Russia are India's best friends - Firstpost - NewsXS
If you ask me I would stop at two; just two! Japan and Russia, in that order. For the third spot there may be a contest between Israel and the US, though both have their own well determined agendas which do not gel with India's scheme of things – Palestine, Syria and Iran as far as Israel is concerned and a whole lot of issues, not just China and Pakistan, when it comes to the US.
The US may ostensibly win the race for the number three slot in my list of India's three best foreign policy partners for the simple reason that it is the sole superpower of the world and this status of Washington is unlikely to be challenged for the next couple of decades at least. But then partnering with the US is like running an egg-in-spoon race. The race itself is full of edge-of-the-seat excitements and the outcome is always tentative.
Moreover, with the US there is always another risk. You never know when you are an esteemed partner and when you become a liability. The US-Pakistan relations are an important reality check not just for the Indians but for anyone who wishes to get into the so-called good books of the Americans.
The Americans are known to be fast in finding new friends when it suits their national interest and faster in dumping them for the same reasons.
Like other major Western powers (read France particularly), the Americans have no qualms in arming India and Pakistan with lethal weapons simultaneously. Business is the sole mantra.
The Israelis are more sedate and steadfast as a strategic partner of India but this small, and yet militarily powerful, nation is more like a hot potato for India given the Israeli hatred to countries like Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon which makes it difficult for any ruling party in India in India to handle.
Japan and Russia are the only two countries with which India has no ideological or strategic differences.
With either of the two India does not have any troublesome issues that contiguous neighbours usually have. India has no boundary dispute with either of them and does not have a chequered past of fighting a one-to-one war with any of the two for the simple reason that India does not share borders with either of these. And yet India is not far from Japan or Russia.
Over the past one decade, Japan has climbed up the Indian strategic ladder, thanks to the China factor. In fact, the political proximity between India and Japan can be solely attributed to China's aggressive diplomatic and military posturing. China's increasingly assertive diplomacy and its never-stated but always practiced strategy of weaving a string of pearls around India has been directly proportional to India's tilt towards Japan.
But Japan has one more claim to be India's number one friend in today's world. It has been instrumental in silently revolutionizing India's growth story which is visible to the naked eye of the man on the street in India. Japan has emerged as a solid game changer for India in infrastructure growth. No other power on earth has been so pro-actively engaged with the Indians in beefing up the Indian infrastructure like Japan has.
Look at the number of ambitious infrastructure projects that the Japanese have not just been financing but also imparting their technical skills to make these happen. Delhi Metro Rail project was the first to have started with the Japanese financial and technical assistance over a decade ago. Now the Delhi Metro example is being emulated by over thirty Indian cities!
The upcoming mega projects like the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) and the Delhi Mumbai Freight Corridor are all set to eclipse the Delhi Metro glory in terms of the Japanese financial-technical assistance. The Chennai-Bengaluru corridor is another ambitious project in the impressive bouquet of Indo-Japanese global strategic partnership.
Japan has shown to the world how to win the Indian hearts – by stressing on sector-by-sector approach in the Indian infrastructural growth story. So much so that other powers like the UK, France and Germany too have dropped similar hints of focusing on sector-by-sector growth of India.
As far as Russia is concerned, the former superpower has had tried and tested strategic partnership with India for decades when the phrase 'strategic partnership' was not even coined. Russia is India's largest arms exporter. Russia has consciously kept the Indian strategic interests in mind and has taken care not to sell arms to Pakistan. This is despite Pakistan trying its best to cozy up to Russia in the recent past.
It is not a coincidence that the only two countries with which India has been having an institutionalized mechanism of annual summits are Russia and Japan – with Russia since 2000 and with Japan since 2006.
Ironically, the two countries that India is great friends with are deeply suspicious, and even inimical, with each other – Russia and Japan. This provides a wonderful diplomatic opportunity for India as New Delhi can act as a catalyst for improving Russia-Japan ties. Such a move from India is not yet in the public domain but it is a matter of when, not if, that India acts as a bridge between Russia and Japan, even as Moscow and Tokyo are already showing signs of rapprochement.
Why Japan and Russia are India's best friends - Firstpost - NewsXS
