India, Japan chart a new plan for free and open Indo-Pacific

PM Kishida's visit further reiterated his stance to promote Japan's vision of FIOP, as Tokyo looks to expand support for emerging economies in line with an approach focused on bolstering a rules-based international order.

- MOHIT ANAND & RAJESH MEHTA

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was in New Delhi last week. It was his second visit since March last year that has given a new impetus to the burgeoning India-Japan relations. He invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the G7 summit hosted by Japan later in May. The relations have been historically warm but for decades were largely limited to investment and grants by Japanese companies and institutions in India. Under late Japanese PM Shinzo Abe the relationship got a further boost when he coined the term “Indo-Pacific” for the first time while addressing Indian Parliament in 2007. In 2014, PM Modi and PM Abe announced the elevation of India-Japan relationship to a “Special Strategic Global Partnership”. The timing of the visit is important within the context of the upcoming G7 and G20 summits along with PM Modi’s visit to the United States in the coming months and President Joe Biden’s visit to New Delhi during the G20 leaders’ summit. This will further forge greater cooperation between the Quad nations.

Kishida’s visit further reiterated his stance to promote Japan’s vision of a “Free and Open Indo-Pacific” (FIOP) as Tokyo looks to expand support for emerging economies in line with an approach focused on bolstering a rules-based international order. For Japan, India plays a central role in their FIOP architecture. Takashi Suzuki, Chief Director General of Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO), New Delhi while speaking to us commented, “I welcome our Prime Minister’s remarks on FOIP, especially which has more diverse focuses on the growth of the region as a whole including the industrial capabilities of the Bay of Bengal and North-Eastern India, and its focus on ‘People’. As South Asia is the source of the growth for the world’s future with its huge population and dynamic economy. India and Japan can together lead this initiative.”