Unique rapport between the Japanese PM and India's Prime Minister-designate adds a fresh impetus to ties between the two nations
Sandeep Unnithan May 23, 2014 | UPDATED 09:51 IST
Narendra Modi, Shinzo Abe
Modi tweeted his gratitude for the invitation. It followed a 15-minute-long phone call from the Japanese PM. Officials, however, believe it is by now only a question of when, not if, Modi will travel to Tokyo for his first overseas bilateral visit. Japanese embassy officials in New Delhi say they want Modi's state visit to happen "at the earliest". Annual summits between the premiers of India and Japan have taken place every year since 2006 as part of a strategic and global partnership. Abe was the chief guest at India's Republic Day parade this year.
If Modi indeed goes to Tokyo, it will be his third meeting with Abe. As chief minister of Gujarat, he had travelled to New Delhi to meet Abe in 2007, when the Japanese PM was on a state visit to India. During a five-day visit to Japan in July 2012, Modi met Abe again. The then Gujarat chief minister was feted like a head of state by the Japanese government which had possibly marked him out for future greatness. The second Modi-Abe meet was brief but eventful. Both leaders shared their vision for better Indo-Japanese ties. "Modi shares a good rapport with Abe but also has an emotional connect with Japan. It is the country his role model, Swami Vivekananda, visited in 1893," says journalist-author Sanjaya Baru, former press adviser to Manmohan Singh.
Modi's meeting with Abe underlined a rare story of an Indian chief minister establishing a rapport with a foreign head of state. Both have a lot in common beyond their being right-wing nationalists elected through landslide victories. Both are pushing their unique brand of market economics for national revival. Brahma Chellaney of the New Delhi-based Centre for Policy Research, calls Modi "India's Abe". "Modi mirrors Abe's soft nationalism, market-oriented economics, and new Asianism, seeking close ties with Asian democracies to create strategic partnerships."
The partnership began during Manmohan Singh's tenure as prime minister. Bilateral trade between India and Japan stands at a healthy $18 billion annually. Modi has promised to make it grow. "I am sure we will take India-Japan ties to newer heights," Modi tweeted to Abe.
Japan is India's fourth largest investor with investments of over $14 billion since 2000. There are indications that the new government will seek the Abe government's assistance to develop India's North-east, a key feature on Modi's agenda, and accelerate Japanese assistance in building the much-talked about Ahmedabad-Delhi high-speed rail corridor and the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor. Speaking in Japan, Modi foresaw a pivotal role for the host country to help improve competency of the Indian manufacturing sector and competitiveness for constructing smart cities.
Japanese businesses are hopeful Modi will make India as competitive as China vis-A -vis an investment destination for Japanese companies. "I hope he frames an open door policy with less bureaucracy, red tape and regulation unlike the Congress rule," says Sakutaro Tanino, Japan's former ambassador to India and now a director with the Suzuki Motors Corporation. Another Japanese diplomat in New Delhi lists the strengthening of the India-Japan strategic alliance as well as the stability and predictability of the policy within India as two essentials to boost the economic relationship. "Regulatory problems of late have hampered the flow of Japanese investments into India. We hope a strong signal goes out from the Indian leadership to clear the air."
Modi was the first Indian chief minister to champion a Look East policy. He courted the economic powerhouses of China, Singapore and Japan for investments in Gujarat during his 12 years as chief minister. Japanese firms are expected to invest over $2 billion in Gujarat by 2015-16. More than 100 Japanese companies attended the 'Vibrant Gujarat' summit in 2013.
The eastward direction of Modi's investment policy may well have been because of a humiliating travel ban imposed on him by the United States in 2005, citing human rights violations in the 2002 Gujarat riots (the visa ban is still in force). On May 16, Modi received a phone call from US President Barak Obama, congratulating him on his victory and inviting him to visit Washington-a clear indication that the past has been buried. Under Modi, the India-US relationship will be business-like rather than warm, says Chellaney. The warmth is reserved for Japan.
China, another country that Modi admires and has visited thrice, has been closely watching the Modi-Abe bonhomie. On May 20, the day Abe tweeted his invitation, a Chinese government think tank hailed Modi as "India's Nixon" and not "India's Abe". "Modi is unlikely to act as vehemently as Abe, as it would be of no benefit to India's economy," Liu Zongyi of the Shanghai Institute of International Studies wrote in the Communist Party-run newspaper Global Times. Clearly, India's Abe has a delicate balancing act to do between frenemies China and Japan.
Follow the writer on Twitter @SandeepUnnithan
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