Japan, Australia strengthening ties with India

Japan and Australia recognise that India, the largest democracy in the world, is respected for its diversity and development. They seem connected to India in a natural way and believe that despite their diversity, there is ample understanding among them to find the best way forward so that the impact on the Indo-Pacific is positive.

Gurjit Singh

Former Ambassador

THE Quad and Indo-Pacific, with specific reference to India, have been in the spotlight recently. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida visited India on March 19-20; the highlight of his trip was his elucidation of the new Japanese policy for a free and open Indo-Pacific region.

Earlier, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was in India for the first India-Australia annual summit on March 10. Out of its three Quad partners, India now has annual summits with Japan and Australia.

Overall, the Quad partners with India are now consistent in grasping several opportunities to meet during the year beyond their annual summits. The G7 summit in Hiroshima, the Quad summit in Sydney and the G20 summit in New Delhi in the next six months will provide ample opportunities for the Quad leadership to meet. The Quad foreign ministers recently met in New Delhi. They may well meet at the UN General Assembly in September too.

The context needs to be seen in a wider sense in the region. Japan and South Korea made up after a long hiatus of a tense relationship. Australia, the UK and the US (AUKUS) announced their plan to deploy nuclear-powered submarines in Australia for countering China. The Ministers of Defence of Japan, the UK and Italy met in Tokyo and decided to develop a next-generation fighter jet by 2035, confirming a plan initially discussed in 2022. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz visited Tokyo a week earlier and among other things discussed closer defence cooperation with the Indo-Pacific which he discussed earlier in India.

After the Australian PM visited India, the AUKUS announcement came and prior to the Kishida visit, Japan for the first time introduced its military missile detachments to the distant islands within the Senkaku chain which will defend the Senkakus in the East China Sea and also have a bearing on the Taiwan crisis if it erupts. Thus, much is happening in the Indo-Pacific mainly to counter China.

The visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to Moscow recently enlarged the multifaceted partnership with Russia amid its continuing conflict with Ukraine. The problem of the Ukraine crisis for India is that it brings expectation that India would side with the G7 and NATO-led approach of criticising Russia, whereas India, which is critical of Russian action, has been more muted in its public display of unhappiness.

India does not want the precedent of the Ukraine crisis to be used in other situations and is wary of China on its northern borders. If China creates a crisis in Taiwan, India will have to expend a lot of effort in diplomacy. India, for its development, requires a peaceful and stable world.

Constraining China and its aggressive intent in the Indo-Pacific is a shared approach that India follows with Japan, Australia and the US as well as with other countries in the region, who are less vocal in their criticism of China.

Therefore, the enunciation by PM Kishida of the revitalised free and open Indo-Pacific was important. Thirty years ago, Japan did not consider India a part of its Asia-Pacific policy. With the Indo-Pacific policy covering a wider reach, India is a linchpin. Kishida was clear in saying that India was indispensable to the Indo-Pacific. At the same time, he mentioned a large number of countries with whom the free and open Indo-Pacific could engage to keep a rules-based order on maritime security.

Albanese, while in India, had a symbolic visit to aircraft carrier INS Vikrant. Australia will host the Malabar maritime exercise for the first time this year. Their joint adherence to the Quad principles and mutual support to India in the Indo-Pacific was palpable during the visit.

India has initiated the Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative (IPOI). Japan and Australia are among the countries, besides Singapore, Italy, France and Indonesia, who are partnering with India in some of the pillars of cooperation of the IPOI. But Kishida did not mention the IPOI in his free and open Indo-Pacific elaboration. With Australia, this found clear resonance in the joint statement.

Kishida announced several pillars of cooperation under the free and open Indo-Pacific venture. These are the principles for peace and rules for prosperity, including a free, fair and just economic order. This also covers quality infrastructure investment and transparent development finance. The second pillar is addressing the challenges in an ‘Indo-Pacific way’. The global commons approach will be used to deal with climate, environment, public health and cyberspace. Multi-layered connectivity is the third pillar. Here, the emphasis is on diversifying reliance on single countries to avoid vulnerabilities.

In this context, Kishida mentioned India, especially its North-East, ASEAN and the Pacific islands as important focal areas for such connectivity. The fourth pillar aims to increase knowledge and human resource development. The ASEAN and the Pacific islands are areas where Australia, too, is willing to collaborate with India.

Japan is seemingly ready to revise its development cooperation charter to use its official development assistance (ODA) more imaginatively, mobilise private capital and deal more conclusively with socio-economic challenges. Japan’s appetite for public funds to be invested for the ODA alone is diminishing and it wants to increase its private sector FDI.

By adding all this, Japan proposes the mobilisation of about $75 billion in the Indo-Pacific region by 2030 for developing infrastructure, connectivity and the like. In this, Australia is ready to harness more capital, though it is not as big a capital-surplus country as Japan is.

Both Japan and Australia recognise that India, as the largest democracy in the world, is respected for its diversity and development. They seem connected to India in a natural way and believe that despite their diversity, there is ample understanding among them to find the best way forward so that the impact on the Indo-Pacific is positive and peaceful and for the betterment of humankind.

Kishida sees India as a partner of responsibility for maintaining and strengthening the free and open Indo-Pacific, based on the rule of law. Albanese had similar thoughts. The coordination between G7 President Japan and G20 Chair India was, perhaps, fruitful to the extent that other than Ukraine, there is a broad commonality of views on how to make the world a better place.