With Modi-Abe bromance gone, will India’s ties with Japan remain solid?

Name: Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe resigns for health reasons
Uploaded: 2020-09-10T14:18:07.000Z
Duration: 2 min 19 s
Description: Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe resigns for health reasons

In India, Abe is viewed as a leader who has transformed bilateral ties, having initiated the annual summit and shifted Japan’s priority to the Indo-Pacific

His resignation comes at a complex time, with both Japan and India seeing security challenges and feeling the pressure of the deepening US-China rivalry

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Japan’s Shinzo Abe and Indian PM Narendra Modi at Hyderabad House in New Delhi in 2015. Photo: AFP

Pranay Sharma

Published: 10:18pm, 10 Sep 2020Updated: 8:10pm, 18 Sep 2020

Outgoing Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi on Thursday agreed their countries would work more closely for peace and security in the Indo-Pacific, a fortnight after Abe said he would step down over health issues.

A day earlier the Indian Armed Forces and the Self-Defence Forces of Japan had signed an agreement that would allow the two countries’ navies to use each other’s ports for basic support and resupplies.

During a 30-minute telephone call between Modi and Abe the leaders reaffirmed the trust and friendship between them and recalled their visits to each other’s countries.

Modi thanked Abe for his “personal commitment and leadership” in strengthening the relationship between the countries. They also agreed their partnership would play a critical role in “charting the course for the global community in the post-Covid world.”

Abe’s shock announcement comes at a time of security challenges for both India and Japan. India is locked in a tense stand-off with China at their disputed border, while Tokyo has protested against Chinese fishing and naval boats swarming near the disputed Senkaku-Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea.

Joint statements from the two sides have often called for an “open, transparent, inclusive rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific with freedom of navigation and overflight”, without mentioning China. But there is no doubt about Beijing being the elephant in the room.

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Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe resigns for health reasons

“There is a consensus that China’s unilateralism is … threatening peace and development throughout the region,” said Sujan R. Chinoy, director general of the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analysis, and a former Indian diplomat. “Both India and Japan can make active contribution to preserving the South China Sea as a maritime global commons.”