Japan plans $75 bn investment across Indo-Pacific to counter China

Japan on Monday pledged $75 billion in public and private investments across the Indo-Pacific nations by 2030 to counter hegemonic aspirations of China.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida unveiled a new plan to promote "a free and open Indo-Pacific". He articulated the plan while delivering a lecture at the Indian Council of World Affairs in New Delhi on Monday — more than one and a half decades after one of his predecessors, Shinzo Abe, addressed India's Parliament and laid the foundation of the concept of Indo-Pacific and mooted an 'Arc of Democracy' to contain the belligerence of China.

Kishida arrived in New Delhi on Monday. He had a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who said during a joint news conference that the India-Japan "special strategic and global partnership" was based on the shared democratic values of the two nations and their respect for the rule of law in international arena. "Strengthening this partnership is not only important for both our countries but it also promotes peace, prosperity and stability in the Indo-Pacific region," Modi said, tacitly sending out a message to China.

Read | Japan PM says India 'indispensable' in ensuring free Indo-Pacific

During the meeting between the two leaders, a note was exchanged between the two sides for Japan to provide India the fourth tranche of a loan of up to 300 billion yen (around Rs 18,000 crore) for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed rail project.

India and Japan, along with Australia and the United States, are members of the ‘Quad’, a four-nation coalition launched in 2007 and revived in 2017 to counter China’s expansionist moves in the Indo-Pacific. The meeting between the prime ministers of India and Japan took place in New Delhi on a day Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin met in Moscow.

Notwithstanding the long-standing strategic partnership between New Delhi and Moscow, Russia in the past echoed China in opposing the Quad.

“To protect the free oceans, we will support the strengthening of maritime law enforcement capabilities of each country through human resource development, strengthening cooperation among coast guard agencies, and joint training with the coast guards of other countries,” Kishida said at the ICWA, articulating his new plan for the Indo-Pacific region. He also vowed to expand Japan’s cooperation with India, Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States to boost maritime security. “We will promote joint training with India and the US, and goodwill training with the ASEAN and the Pacific Island countries,” he said.

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The Japanese Prime Minister promised to proactively promote transfer of warning and control radars, and human resource development and exchange. He noted that it was important to take advantage of satellites for maritime domain awareness, and we would promote human resource development and information sharing. “Further, we will enhance cooperation among aviation authorities to address new technologies including drones.”

New Delhi in the past resisted the US bid to turn the Quad into an Indo-Pacific NATO or a security alliance overtly adversarial to China, despite the communist country’s belligerence along its disputed boundary with India.

Though Modi was not present when Kishida announced his new plan for Indo-Pacific, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra attended the event at the ICWA. Kishida said that India was an indispensable partner for Japan in the pursuit for a free and open Indo-Pacific.

Kishida delivered the lecture at the ICWA almost 16 years after the then Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had addressed a joint session of both the Houses of Parliament of India on August 22 in 2007. Abe’s landmark speech, titled “Confluence of the Two Seas”, had laid the foundation of the concept of Indo-Pacific and a larger cooperation between India and Japan as well as other nations in building an “arc of democracy” to counter the hegemonic aspirations of China.

The Japanese Prime Minister strongly condemned Russia's aggression against Ukraine. He quoted Modi’s "today's era is not of war" message to Putin. “Japan opposes any unilateral changes to the status quo by force anywhere in the world,” Kishida said, even as Modi refrained from making any comment on Russia’s “special military operations” in Ukraine.

Kishida briefed Modi about Japan’s priority as the G7 chair. He invited Modi to attend the G7 meeting in Hiroshima later this year. Kishida will again travel to New Delhi to attend the G20 summit, which Modi will host on September 9 and 10.