New Delhi: Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was assassinated Friday, had always been “passionate” about not just bolstering bilateral ties with India but also about bringing democracies around the world together in making a strategic framework.
From shaping the Quad, or Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, as a grouping aimed against Chinese threats, to batting for India on the stage of the mega trade pact Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), Abe was a steadfast friend of India.
Abe was Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, with two terms in 2006-2007 and 2012-2020, during which he developed special relationships with both his Indian counterparts, Manmohan Singh and Narendra Modi.
Sharing a picture from my most recent meeting with my dear friend, Shinzo Abe in Tokyo. Always passionate about strengthening India-Japan ties, he had just taken over as the Chairman of the Japan-India Association. pic.twitter.com/Mw2nR1bIGz
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 8, 2022
The fact that he was “passionate” about India can be traced back to August 2007, when he arrived as Japan’s Prime Minister for the first time. During that visit, he spoke about the ‘Confluence of Two Seas’ in Parliament, which culminated into what is today the Indo-Pacific strategic framework, with India at the centre.
Promoting his idea of the ‘Arc of Freedom and Prosperity’ outside of the West, Abe declared at the time — when bilateral ties were purely about trade and business — that India and Japan need to have a strategic partnership
“Japanese diplomacy is now promoting various concepts in a host of different areas so that a region called the Arc of Freedom and Prosperity will be formed along the outer rim of the Eurasian continent. The Strategic Global Partnership of Japan and India is pivotal for such pursuits to be successful,” he had said.
“The Pacific and the Indian Oceans are now bringing about a dynamic coupling as seas of freedom and of prosperity. A ‘broader Asia’ that broke away geographical boundaries is now beginning to take on a distinct form. Our two countries have the ability — and the responsibility — to ensure that it broadens yet further and to nurture and enrich these seas to become seas of clearest transparency,” Abe added.
A year before that, when the then Indian PM Singh was on a visit to Japan, both leaders decided to upgrade their bilateral ties and establish a Strategic and Global Partnership.
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Driving force behind Quad
Despite Abe’s best efforts, the idea of Quad could not take off in the initial years due to massive protests by China during one of its earlier meetings in Manila, in May 2007.
China was particularly opposed to Australia, then under Prime Minister John Howard, joining the grouping and, eventually, the Quad got buried.
But in 2017, as a response to China’s increasing belligerence, the Quad got revived on the basis of Abe’s vision of the ‘Democratic Security Diamond’ — which had freedom of navigation and safeguarding maritime commons at its core. In 2019, a Quad meeting took place among the foreign ministers of the US, India, Australia and Japan.
By the next year, Covid also emerged as a unifying force.
“Prime Minister Abe’s resignation in September 2007 deprived the Quad of its main cheerleader and architect … With a decade of relationship building and further strategic alignment in hand, the stage was set in 2017 for a resumption of the Quad,” the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said in a report.
“Shinzo Abe, the original champion of the Quad, returned to office in 2012 and wasted no time in calling for a democratic security diamond, a Quad 2.0 in all but name.”
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When Abe wanted India to be part of RCEP
For Abe, India was a “beautiful country” as can be seen in ‘Utsukushii Kuni E (Toward a Beautiful Country)’, a book written by him in 2006. “It would not be a surprise if in another 10 years, Japan-India relations overtake Japan-US and Japan-China relations,” he wrote.
Not surprisingly, Abe realised that India was central in Japan’s fight against China, not just in strategic terms but also in terms of emboldening trade and business ties.
In November 2019, when PM Modi suddenly walked out of the RCEP, Japan made it clear that it will not sign the mega trade pact without India. It was because of Abe’s persuasion that it was agreed by all other member countries, including China, that India can join the pact whenever it decides to.
He had been working with India since 2013 when the talks for RCEP had just begun and the country was not considered for the Trans-Pacific Partnership by the US.
The RCEP includes the 10 ASEAN members — Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam — and five of their trade partners — Australia, China, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand.
It was due to Abe and his outstanding personal equation with Modi that Japan continued to push for the bullet train project in India despite massive opposition from all quarters.
“It was Prime Minister Abe’s idea to bring together all like-minded democracies as the China threat was rising. It was due to him that the Quad has finally taken shape. He always said that it was for the global good and he was comfortable with the idea that it was not a security alliance,” veteran diplomat Anil Wadhwa said.
“Prime Minister Abe made efforts with the Japanese government even after he left the PM’s office to keep India as a priority in its foreign policy and also mould the thinking of Japanese people.”
The former Secretary (East), Ministry of External Affairs, said that it was due to Abe that “Japan sweetened the deal for India when the bullet train project was facing difficulties by making the loan terms easier so that it became more palatable”.
“He was keen on RCEP and kept on accommodating India in the trade pact. It was a Japanese construct,” he added.
India and Japan also signed the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) on 16 February 2011, which came into force from 1 August the same year.
In August 2020, Abe, 67, stepped down from the Prime Minister’s office citing ill health, but continued to work to bolster ties with India. He was succeeded first by Yoshihide Suga (2020 to 2021) and then by Fumio Kishida (since 2021).
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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