By M D Nalapat
After talks with Chinese Premier Li
Keqiang, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is hosting Indian Prime Minister
Narendra Modi on November 28 and 29.
Will Japan do
the same as the US?
Washington would like Delhi to be as
committed as Tokyo to its strategic objectives, but Modi, who like his
predecessor Manmohan Singh favors close links with the US, understands that
there are many more geopolitical differences between India and the US than the
US and Japan.
For example, Iran, a country that
President Trump would like India to cease all oil purchases and other
transactions from. However, Teheran has long been a regional partner of Delhi,
and while private oil companies in India have stopped purchasing Iranian oil,
state enterprises continue to do so, ignoring US commands and threats of
sanctions.
In Syria, the US sides with Saudi
Arabia, Israel, Turkey and Qatar in seeking the defeat of the forces loyal to
President Bashar al-Assad. To try and bring this about, they are spending
hundreds of millions of US dollars assisting fanatic groups that are linked to
Al Qaeda and ISIS.
However, India continues to
recognize and support the Assad government. As for DPRK, a country that India
has recognized from the beginning, it is unlikely that India will join the US
and Japan in seeking to punish Pyongyang for developing nuclear devices,
although anodyne statements concerning nuclear proliferation may be made during
the October 28-29 visit.
Shinzo Abe will not be able to
persuade Modi to change such policies when even Donald Trump has not succeeded.
However, there is likely to be agreement on several bilateral issues.
India is looking for major financial
commitments from Japan to fund infrastructure projects, as also easier entry
even of highly trained Indian citizens to Japan. At present, getting a Japanese
visa is a vexatious matter.
In order to attend an India-Japan-US
conference in Tokyo on October 28 and 29, this writer applied for a Japan visa
on October 10, but even his single-entry 15-day visa took twelve days to
arrive.
Clearly, the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs in Tokyo does not share Prime Minister Abe's enthusiasm for India and
treat citizens of the world's largest democracy as being just individuals from
a Third World country.
Medical
cooperation, a focus of Modi's visit
Medical service is a sector where
Japan and India could cooperate. Japanese companies have begun making
investments in pharmaceutical companies in India.
Despite its low per capita income,
India has tens of thousands of world-class medical personnel, and it may be
beneficial for Japan to welcome Indian doctors and nurses the way the US and
the UK have.
Should joint ventures get started in
India, high-quality medical facilities could be set up in selected Indian
cities that could serve the medical needs of Japanese "medical
tourists" at a much lower cost than gets incurred at home.
India is known across the world for medical
tourism. Each year, several thousand patients come for treatment, including
from Europe and North America. There are fields in which India has an advantage
in technique and others where Japan is far ahead, and collaboration would be
helpful to both countries.
Japan has developed high-quality
Buddhist pilgrim circuits in India, and could with ease set up
Japanese-oriented medical treatment circuits, including chartered flights
bringing patients to cities in India where such facilities get set up. Thus
far, Japan has looked almost entirely to Europe and the US for enhancement of
its technologies.
While the US has several research
facilities in India, China has begun doing the same. For example, Huawei in
Bangalore. But Japanese, on the other hand, has yet to take advantage of the
abundant reserves of skilled human power that is present in a country with 1.27
billion people, nearly three-fourths of whom are below the age of 35.
Defense
cooperation also on the agenda
Finally, there is likely to be a
discussion on defense cooperation. Japan, the US, Australia, and India form the
Quad or quadrilateral alliance and talks on how to deepen this understanding
are likely to take place. Another item on the agenda will be India's
connectivity projects in South-east Asia, where Japan may partner.
Tokyo is unlikely to join projects
such as the Chabahar port and highway in Iran, for fear of US reaction.
However, there could be a joint activity in Afghanistan, just as there is a
joint activity between China and India in that country.
Overall, no breakthroughs are
expected, but in the long run, steady progress is what will count, and this
seems to be likely in Japan-India relations in the context of the October visit
of Prime Minister Modi to Tokyo.
No comments:
Post a Comment