05-02-2005, 02:26 AM
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<b>A fine balance</b>
Arun Nehru
With Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi visiting New Delhi within three weeks of Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao's sojourn, India is fast emerging as the theatre of Asian power play. Mr Koizumi, known for his use of flamboyant body language, effortlessly charmed his hosts.
Apart from pledging full support for infrastructure development, including a state-of-the-art $5 billion Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Howrah rail corridor, he stressed that Japan would like to see India emerge as a prominent Asian player. That is a very long distance Tokyo has travelled after virtually blackballing New Delhi for its surprise nuclear tests in the summer of 1998.
The future looms large, and Japan is keen, as is India, on forging a bilateral partnership, ostensibly anchored in trade and economic cooperation, which can serve the strategic interests of both Tokyo and New Delhi. The immediate strategic concern that brings these two nations on a common platform is their bid for permanent membership of the UN Security Council. Both deserve to sit at the high table of the UN, but both have to overcome the obstructionism of what has been eloquently described as "difficult neighbours".
China, which still nurses historical grievances against Japan, is loath to conceding regional power status to its eastern neighbour. Beijing would rather block the proposed expansion of the Security Council than share power in the UN with Tokyo. Pakistan, which wallows in imagined victimhood born of its incurable distrust of India, never mind the apparent bonhomie, has decided to join the group of spoilers whose idea of UN reforms is their induction as eight "rotating" permanent members in the Security Council. Such is Islamabad's intransigence that it has made common cause with Dhaka to block New Delhi's bid.
<b>Mindful of these obstacles, and others that are bound to come up in the coming months, India and Japan have joined ranks with Brazil and Germany, which, too, face similar problems. Neither Argentina nor Mexico wishes to see Brazil in an expanded Security Council; in Europe, Italy is bent upon tripping Germany. India, in a sense, is the best placed of the four, with the UK, China and Russia accepting the validity of its claim, albeit reluctantly</b>.
However, the US has endorsed Japan's bid, giving it an advantage over all other contenders. India realises it can use Japan's advantage to further its case-if Tokyo can convince Washington to accept the proposal of including six permanent members, which suits Japanese interests, Pakistan's obstructionism will be rendered a futile exercise and India will move a step closer to Security Council membership.
<b>For Japan, a strategic alliance with India is important to neutralise Chinese posturing and promote the concept of alternative power centres in Asia.</b> A Tokyo-New Delhi axis is not in Beijing's interest-Mr Wen Jiabao made that more than apparent during his visit. While it is tempting for India to bask in the glory of competitive wooing by its powerful Asian neighbours, it will be wiser for New Delhi to separate the enmeshed strands of self-interest and pursue a path that serves our national interest. Seen from a narrow perspective, it is served more by harnessing the tremendous potential of our relations with China.
A larger worldview would suggest that a strategic alliance with Japan would in the long run ensure a multipolar Asia rather than one inexorably dominated by China. Striking a balance between the two calls for walking the tightrope that now stretches across New Delhi, Tokyo and Beijing.
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<b>A fine balance</b>
Arun Nehru
With Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi visiting New Delhi within three weeks of Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao's sojourn, India is fast emerging as the theatre of Asian power play. Mr Koizumi, known for his use of flamboyant body language, effortlessly charmed his hosts.
Apart from pledging full support for infrastructure development, including a state-of-the-art $5 billion Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Howrah rail corridor, he stressed that Japan would like to see India emerge as a prominent Asian player. That is a very long distance Tokyo has travelled after virtually blackballing New Delhi for its surprise nuclear tests in the summer of 1998.
The future looms large, and Japan is keen, as is India, on forging a bilateral partnership, ostensibly anchored in trade and economic cooperation, which can serve the strategic interests of both Tokyo and New Delhi. The immediate strategic concern that brings these two nations on a common platform is their bid for permanent membership of the UN Security Council. Both deserve to sit at the high table of the UN, but both have to overcome the obstructionism of what has been eloquently described as "difficult neighbours".
China, which still nurses historical grievances against Japan, is loath to conceding regional power status to its eastern neighbour. Beijing would rather block the proposed expansion of the Security Council than share power in the UN with Tokyo. Pakistan, which wallows in imagined victimhood born of its incurable distrust of India, never mind the apparent bonhomie, has decided to join the group of spoilers whose idea of UN reforms is their induction as eight "rotating" permanent members in the Security Council. Such is Islamabad's intransigence that it has made common cause with Dhaka to block New Delhi's bid.
<b>Mindful of these obstacles, and others that are bound to come up in the coming months, India and Japan have joined ranks with Brazil and Germany, which, too, face similar problems. Neither Argentina nor Mexico wishes to see Brazil in an expanded Security Council; in Europe, Italy is bent upon tripping Germany. India, in a sense, is the best placed of the four, with the UK, China and Russia accepting the validity of its claim, albeit reluctantly</b>.
However, the US has endorsed Japan's bid, giving it an advantage over all other contenders. India realises it can use Japan's advantage to further its case-if Tokyo can convince Washington to accept the proposal of including six permanent members, which suits Japanese interests, Pakistan's obstructionism will be rendered a futile exercise and India will move a step closer to Security Council membership.
<b>For Japan, a strategic alliance with India is important to neutralise Chinese posturing and promote the concept of alternative power centres in Asia.</b> A Tokyo-New Delhi axis is not in Beijing's interest-Mr Wen Jiabao made that more than apparent during his visit. While it is tempting for India to bask in the glory of competitive wooing by its powerful Asian neighbours, it will be wiser for New Delhi to separate the enmeshed strands of self-interest and pursue a path that serves our national interest. Seen from a narrow perspective, it is served more by harnessing the tremendous potential of our relations with China.
A larger worldview would suggest that a strategic alliance with Japan would in the long run ensure a multipolar Asia rather than one inexorably dominated by China. Striking a balance between the two calls for walking the tightrope that now stretches across New Delhi, Tokyo and Beijing.
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