Is China worried ?
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe
China needs to worry a
lot after PM Modi's
Japan visit last month.
The visit helped in
giving a further fillip
to the already robust
Special Strategic and Global
Partnership between them.
main highlight of the 11th Japan-
India Annual Summit in Tokyo was
that Asia's number two and
number three economies
respectively signed the longnegotiated
nuclear deal that was
being constantly tossed between
diplomatic high tables located in
New Delhi and Tokyo for last six
years.
China
No prizes in guessing that the main highlight of the 11th Japan-
India Annual Summit in Tokyo was
that Asia's number two and
number three economies
respectively signed the longnegotiated
nuclear deal that was
being constantly tossed between
diplomatic high tables located in
New Delhi and Tokyo for last six
years.
China cannot lose sight of the
importance of this deal which
stems from the fact that it is the
first kind of civilian nuclear
cooperation agreement that Japan
has signed with a non-NPT state
and that too after the Fukushima
nuclear disaster of 11 March, 2011.
Though the two sides signed a
separate document which says that
the Japanese will annul their
nuclear deal with New Delhi if
India were to conduct a fresh
nuclear test (which India hasn't
done since 1998), Indian diplomats
don't attach much significance to
this document.
They say that a "termination
clause" has been roped in with all
the twelve countries India has
signed a nuclear deal with, Japan
included. In any case, this separate sheet has no legal sanctity and it
has been drafted in view of the
Japanese sensitivities as Japan is the first and the only nation in the
world to have suffered a nuclear
attack. China must not delude itself into
thinking that the words "South
China Sea" or SCS did not find a
mention even once in the India-
Japan Joint Statement.
Actually, it reflects a new
paradigm shift in the approach of
India as well as the international
community vis a vis the SCS issue.
The new approach is to go hammer and tongs on the UNCLOS verdict
in the Philippine-China dispute
over the SCS issue. The reason for
that is it is an open secret in
international diplomatic circles
that China has completely won
over the new Philippine president
Rodrigo Duterte who has toed
China's line and has vowed to
throw out all foreign troops (read
Americans) from the country
despite the fact that the US and
Philippine have a decade-old
military treaty.
India and Japan are going to
further deepen their strategic
partnership. The signing of the nuclear deal by the two sides is the
biggest indication that their
strategic partnership has just
begun.
As for PM Modi, he won't shy
away from taking hard policy
decisions in furthering the India-
Japan strategic partnership. More
and more robust military
cooperation is on the cards
between India and Japan