Japan now totally pulls India’s lines on geo-strategic matters and commercial interests in the Asia-Pacific region. The two nations are too close now giving a common response to several issues from the South China Sea to South Asia. The 12th annual summit dialogue between India and Japan was held on 13-14 September when Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe toured New Delhi, Ahmedabad, and Gandhinagar. Abe is the only Japanese Prime Minister who visited India four times. Earlier, he visited India in December 2015, January 2014, and August 2007. Abe is an admirer of India and he wrote a book titled Towards A Beautiful Country in which he called for enforcing a strong strategic partnership with India.
The growing Indo-Japanese relationship is in fact countering the Sino-Pakistani moves and the collaboration taking place with Russia – a new geostrategic alliance and partnership in the global context. Together India and Japan formed a GDP of US$ 7.1 trillion, which is far below than China’s GDP of over US$ 11.2 trillion and if Russia’s GDP of US$ 1.2 is added, the India-Japan GDP strength is just half that.
