The Best Is Yet To Come: PM Modi’s Op-ed On India-Japan Relations

Prime Minister Modi is in Japan at the invitation of his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida.

New Delhi:  The India-Japan relationship has new responsibilities and goals including amid the Covid pandemic as global tensions and disruptive challenges to stability and security in the Indo-Pacific region have underlined the need for building resilient supply chains, a human-centric development model and stable and strong international economic relations, capable of resisting coercion and exploitation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who on Monday arrived in Japan on a two-day visit to attend a summit of the Quad leaders, wrote in an opinion editorial in a leading Japanese newspaper. He said the relationship between Japan and India is “special, strategic and global”.

The Quad, or Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, which comprises India, the US, Japan, and Australia is a regional formation based on shared interests over cooperation in the strategic Indo-Pacific region. The member nations say they share values of “democracy, freedom and rule-based international order”.

India and Japan will contribute towards building an open, free and inclusive Indo-Pacific region, connected by secure seas, integrated by trade and investment, defined by respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity and anchored in international law, PM Modi added.

The Quad formation, experts believe, is an attempt to counter Chinese aggression in the Indo-Pacific region where it has territorial disputes with several countries.

The Chinese government claims nearly all of the disputed South China Sea, though Taiwan, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam all claim parts of it. Beijing has built artificial islands and military installations in the South China Sea. It is also involved in a maritime dispute with Japan over the East China Sea.

Prime Minister Modi is in Japan at the invitation of his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida. In an op-ed on the vibrant relations between India and Japan in the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper, he highlighted partnerships between the two countries in defence manufacturing, cyber, space, and underwater domains.