Responding to Prime Minister Abe’s resignation announcement Narendra modi tweeted: “It pains me to hear about your poor health, my dear friend @AbeShinzo. In recent years, with your wise leadership and personal commitment, the India-Japan partnership has grown deeper and stronger than ever. I wish and pray for your speedy recovery. ”
It pains me to hear about your poor health, my dear friend @AbeShinzo. In recent years, with his wise leadership and per… https://t.co/Jb9fHr2XTz
– Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) 1598619306000
Abe’s successor could be late in coming, given the volatile nature of Japanese politics. But be it Taro Aso, Taro Kono, or Yoshihide Suga, there is now an established momentum in India-Japan relations. And it’s largely because Abe broke the model within his own system, for India.
Modi and Abe developed a close personal relationship even before Modi became prime minister. In fact, as Prime Minister of Gujarat, the first G-8 (then) Modi country visited was Japan. But it wasn’t just Modi. Old PM Manmohan singh and Abe also enjoyed a close relationship. In fact, it was during his last summit with Singh in 2013 that Japan began its investments in northeast India, the first country to do so, in a sign that Japan and India were consolidating their convergent global outlook in the face of a rising China. “Abe was a diamond for India,” he said. Sujan Chinoy, former ambassador to Tokyo.
When he took office in 2014, Modi pioneered the idea of the high-speed rail network, starting from Ahmedabad to Mumbai, a project expected to begin operations in 2023.
Modi may still have his next virtual summit with Abe in September, delayed after the Indian government canceled a summit in Guwahati in December during the anti-CAA riots. India and Japan are expected to sign the Acquisition and Cross Service Agreement (ACSA), to share the logistics, which would make all Quad countries (US, India, Japan, Australia) subject to a prospect shared strategy.
In a sense, it will be a fitting farewell for Abe, who is truly the father of the Indo-Pacific. Since the day Abe delivered a speech on the “confluence of the two oceans” in the Indian parliament in 2007, he has pushed the idea of four key powers to work together in this geographic space.
Abe’s strategic push with India had more than one facet: he just changed the traditional Japanese antipathy towards a chaotic Indian system to embrace it. In his first term, Modi had deployed a single person to the PMO to facilitate Japanese investments in India. Japan was also the only country to send a serving official to the Indian Ministry of Commerce.
But on a larger canvas, Abe used the relationship with India to turn Japan around: opening up defense exports, conducting military exercises with a country other than the US, gaining support from India for his mission. to “normalize” Japan, removing it from its peaceful past. India has consistently supported the idea of a “normal” Japan. Abe was unable to push through the constitutional change he wanted, but Japan is becoming more comfortable with its new security and defense posture.
India will have to work much harder to maintain its relationship in post-Abe Japan, because the next prime minister may not keep India front and center. That will matter as both countries face aggressive China.
On video: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe resigns due to poor health
.
