Abe cancels trip to protest-hit India amid efforts to counter ‘Chinese challenge’
- The Japanese leader was due to meet his counterpart Narendra Modi in northeastern India, which is now the epicentre of anger over a new citizenship law, known as the CAB
- Analysts say the summit comes as Japan and India are boosting ties to respond to Beijing’s rise and provide an alternative to its Belt and Road Initiative
“Both sides have decided to defer the visit to a mutually convenient date in the near future,” India’s foreign ministry spokesman Raveesh Kumar said in a statement.
Several people were injured in the protests, which saw police firing tear gas at the Jamia Millia Islamia university and demonstrators attacking cars in the capital.
For Islamic groups, the opposition and rights groups, it is part of Modi’s agenda to marginalise India’s 200 million Muslims. He denies this.
“They can’t settle anyone in our motherland. This is unacceptable. We will die but not allow outsiders to settle here,” protester Manav Das said in Guwahati on Friday.
The conflict, lasting over seven decades, has led to military skirmishes, and while both sides have agreed to maintain a ceasefire, Beijing has objected to Indian leaders visiting the area.
GROWING TIES
The summit, had it happened, would have been yet another sign of deepening economic and defence cooperation between India and Japan.
In the last year, Abe and Modi met three times, and this weekend’s summit would have been Abe’s fifth to India.
The two countries conducted several military exercises in the last year – the Dharma Guardian Land Exercise, the Shinyuu Maitri aerial exercise, and “Malabar”, the joint naval trilateral exercise conducted with the US this year in September.
The two countries conducted several military exercises over the last year – the Dharma Guardian Land Exercise, the Shinyuu Maitri aerial exercise, and “Malabar”, the joint naval trilateral exercise conducted with the US this year in September.
However, their deepening relationship has faced some recent hiccups, after India refused to join the Regional Comprehensive Economic Programme (RCEP), a mega free-trade pact with China, Japan, India and 13 other nations.
“It did not anticipate such a move and hence, sent out a strong diplomatic message that Japan was committed to an RCEP that is inclusive of India,” she said.
There would have been “considerable dialogue” on the RCEP in a summit between India and Japan, she said.
China, Gandhi or RSS? The real reason India snubbed RCEP trade pact
The newly elected government in Maharashtra state, of which Mumbai is a capital city, has criticised the railway project, citing heavy costs and protests from locals over land acquisition.
Its opposition has sparked fears the project might be axed, since the local government is expected to pick up 25 per cent of the tab.
Kazuya Nakamizo, a professor at Kyoto University’s Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies, said the Japanese establishment was certain to be anxious about the unfolding political climate around the project.
“Japan needs new markets and is very keen to push its cutting edge technologies such as bullet trains,” said Nakamizo, an expert in Indian politics and South Asian politics.
China upset by Modi’s visit to airport site in Arunachal Pradesh
Modi and Abe would also have visited Imphal in the northeastern state of Manipur, the site of one of the fiercest battles of World War II, where the Japan’s Imperial Army fought with Indian nationalist Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose’s Indian National Army against British rule, said Rupakjyoti Borah, a senior researcher at the Japan Forum for Strategic Studies.
Japan and India have also been facilitating greater Japanese investments to modernise India’s northeast region, plans formalised under the India-Japan Act East Forum of 2017. According to the Indian government, Tokyo is investing US$1.87 billion in projects that would boost connectivity, infrastructure, industry and tourism.
Choudhury said these investments by Japan had been made with an eye on China’s growing role in the region.
“[Abe] has strengthened economic partnership in areas relating to strategic components, like road connectivity and ports, and he is currently nurturing a strong presence in north-east India, which has so far been neglected,” she said.
When Abe and Modi do meet, they could sign the Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement, an accord that would grant Japan access to Indian naval facilities in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Indian Ocean, while giving India access to Japanese naval facilities in Djibouti.
Japan’s involvement in India’s northeast and the original choice of hosting Abe in the region is a sign that both India and Japan are ready to deal with the Chinese challenge.
China watchers say these moves are clear signs the two countries have common cause in trying to counter Beijing in the region, with Kyoto University’s Nakamizo noting that Japan had been consciously strengthening ties with India since the 2000s.
“The Asia-Africa Growth Corridor that the two are helming, along with the tripartite agreement with Sri Lanka, are two examples,” Hashmi said.
“It also helps that the two countries have convergent interests, especially with India’s Act East policy and Japan’s Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy,” she said. “Japan’s involvement in India’s northeast and the original choice of hosting Abe in the region is a sign that both India and Japan are ready to deal with the Chinese challenge.”
Additional reporting by Reuters and AFP
