INDIA/JAPAN: Japan and India have agreed to help each other's bids for a place on the UN Security Council, as prime minister Junichiro Koizumi wound up talks yesterday with Indian leaders aimed at building a new partnership.
His trip to India, the first by a Japanese prime minister in five years, came weeks after a landmark visit by Chinese premier Wen Jiabao and is part of Tokyo's "strategic diplomacy" to compete with Beijing.
"They reiterated their support for each other's candidature, based on the firmly shared recognition that Japan and India are legitimate candidates for permanent membership in an expanded Security Council," the two sides said in a joint statement.
China steadfastly opposes a permanent seat for Japan on the Security Council while thousands of people went on violent protests in China this month over school textbooks which critics say sugar-coat Japan's wartime history.
But India and Japan said they would "strengthen their co-operation" to push to make the Security Council "more credible and more effective" and consult "like-minded" nations. The joint statement also said both countries' navies would increase co-operation in Asian waters and they would work to deepen economic and strategic ties.
At the bilateral level, Japan was unabashed in courting India, seen by analysts as important in Tokyo's "strategic diplomacy" to cope with a rising China.
"Japan and India need each other as strong and prospering countries. Japan and India share strategic interests," Mr Koizumi said.
Analysts said the building blocks of a future strategic relationship between the two powers were being laid.
"Japan is now becoming cognisant of India's strategic profile in the coming 10 to 15 years and wants to build a foundation for long-term strategic ties," said Uday Bhaskar, director of the New Delhi-based Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses.
Mr Koizumi told Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh that Tokyo attaches importance to its relations with both New Delhi and Beijing.
"I feel certain that relations between Japan and India will become more and more important strategically, but at the same time, it is important to have friendly Sino-Japanese ties," a Japanese official quoted Mr Koizumi as telling Mr Singh.