Koushik Talukdar
(iamkoushik2@gmail.com)
Former Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe was assassinated on 8th July, 2022. He was shot twice in the neck and was killed. Tetsuya Yamagami (41) used a homemade gun and confessed that he had killed Abe due to a grudge.
Indeed, it is a great loss not only for Japan but also for the entire world, especially for India, and of course for the stakeholder of Indian Ocean and for the Quad. Abe was Japan's longest-serving post-war leader who occupied the Prime Minister's post for eight years and once before that between 2006 and 2007. Abe resigned in August, 2020 due to the treatment for ulcerative colitis, a chronic intestinal disease.
In 2007, while he was the Prime Minister of Japan, Abe had come to India during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's tenure. While speaking about the relationship between the two countries, Abe said that different streams, having their sources in different places, all mingle their water in the sea. Praising India's spirit of tolerance, Abe had said, "From the reign of Ashoka the Great to Mahatma Gandhi's satyagraha movement of non-violent resistance, the Japanese people are well aware of the unbroken spirit of tolerance in Indian spiritual history."
Abe had also talked about India and Japan forming a Strategic Global Partnership, adding, "This partnership is an association in which we share fundamental values such as freedom, democracy, and the respect for basic human rights as well as strategic interests." He was the chief architect behind the revival of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (the Quad), which brings Australia, US, India and Japan together in a strategic alliance aimed at countering China's economic and military expansionism in the Indo-Pacific region.
Under the leadership of Shinzo Abe, Japan had been involved economically with India for decades. The engagement has usually been seen as primarily economic in nature, rather than politically motivated. Joint Indo-Japanese undertakings have been seen as aimed at countering growing Chinese influences in South Asia.
The main focus is on helping India to reduce its economic dependence on China. The 2020 tensions in Ladakh strengthened New Delhi's resolve to decrease imports from China by offering incentives to domestic producers, encouraging the Make in India initiative, and offering better conditions for foreign, non-Chinese investors. The Indian government has also become competitor of China in the cyber security sector, a development that can be seen in its aggressive approach to building 5G networks by apparently deciding to exclude Chinese firms. It is a matter of little surprise that Japan started to offer its assistance in building such networks in India.
Abe's clear guidance and roadmap ensured that Japan is helping India to improve its infrastructure connections with its neighbours. Japan is visibly helping India exactly in those regions that India considers sensitive (the North-East) and in building connections to some of the countries where India is wary of Chinese influence (Bhutan, Bangladesh, Myanmar). Japanese funds are being used, among others, to develop highways in Northeastern states like Mizoram, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura, with a plan to improve connectivity in this underdeveloped Indian region, but also with Myanmar. This does not mean that such infrastructure will be used for military reasons but rather, more simply, it is meant to deepen India's connections with its neighbourhood, and hence, indirectly decrease the fear of Beijing's influence.
Indo-Japanese mutual cooperation in containing China in other parts of South Asia is also visible. In Bangladesh, a Japanese and Indian company jointly won a project to build the Dhaka Metro
Rail Line-6 in 2018, and this has been portrayed by some as an aspect of rivalry with China. The connection of this contract to geopolitics may, however, be disputed.
The Quad group has started promising to jointly provide vaccines to the countries of Southeast Asia, but also, more broadly, to the Indo-Pacific region. Given the current circumstances, the most likely scenario would be that three Quad members — US, Australia, and Japan - provide funds to even more enhance vaccine production in the fourth, India, from where such vaccines could be sent to other countries. It is equally expected that such moves would be meant to counter Chinese influences in states that have been receiving or purchasing Covid-19 vaccines from China.
More than 135 leading Japanese companies are functioning across Gujarat. These companies are helping a lot in the skill development of youths. Three Japan-India Institute for Manufacturing is imparting training to hundreds of youths in Gujarat.
India's ambitious Bullet Train project is no less than a dream. The crucial technology and handholding are provided by Japan with a very minimal interest rate. India is confident of achieving the target of running the country's first bullet train by 2026, or at least conduct a trial run. At an estimated cost of Rs 1.1 trillion, the Japan International Cooperation Agency is funding 81 per cent of the project. The trains will run on special tracks called the "slab track system", popularly known as HSR technology for the construction of tracks, patented by the Japanese.
Although, Shinzo Abe is no more, but his legacy and roadmap to build a future relationship with India are vital for our next generation. The vision and the atmosphere he created will be the base for many decades to come which emphasizes on strong, natural and aligned cooperation between countries. An ideal relationship!
For the people of Assam, it is to be noted that Abe's visit to Assam had been cancelled earlier in 2019 amid unrest due to the CAA protest, especially in Guwahati where he was due to hold summit talks with his counterpart Prime Minister Narendra Modi. That was a missed moment for the state of Assam and its people, which would have opened the gateway for Japanese investment in the region.