Ex-Japanese PM seeks security tie-up with India
NEW DELHI: Usually, Japanese leaders are even more cautious than their Indian counterparts. Certainly, plain-speaking in an international forum is not their forte. Not Shinzo Abe, former Japanese PM.
Speaking at the Indian Council for World Affairs here, Abe said India and Japan should team up to fill a "strategic void". Ultimately, he said, India, Japan and the US should work together to provide stability and safety in Asia. The thinly-veiled reference to China and the need to balance it was not lost.
Indian and Japanese navies, he said, should conduct joint "simple" exercises, every time the Japanese navy is passing through the Indian Ocean. This would give them a greater comfort and interoperability with their Indian counterparts. The Indian Navy, he observed, has now developed deep ties with its US counterpart, and this should be extended to the Japanese.
Japan pulled out of the tri-national Malabar exercises this year after the Fukushima disaster.
Abe said the US would be a weaker power going forward. But this was the time that both Japan and India should be supporting the US because "India's success is in Japan's best interests and Japan's success is in the best interests of India".
Once it was seen that India and Japan can together maintain the safety of sea lanes in Asia, Abe predicted, this would reassure the Vietnamese, Americans and South Koreans, "if not the Chinese". The safety of the sea lanes had been a US responsibility since the 1950s.
"I shall put it this way that let 'Popeye' eat spinach for a while. In the meantime, let India and Japan work together with the Americans, so that there will be no strategic void,"
he said, to appreciative laughter. "Let us work even more closely together with the US, Australia and other maritime democracies to invest in building a robust, open, liberal and safe and stable East Asia Summit-led Asia," he said.
Abe also addressed the "mixed feelings" in India about the US. Saying that Japan too shared those feelings he pointed out that Japan has had a 60-year alliance with the US, which has served them well. "There have been good times and bad times," he said, but on the whole, it was a productive partnership.
Asking Indians to shed this ambivalent attitude towards the US, Abe said, "You can shelve your American shyness for a moment and let your realist-pragmatist side prevail. After all, America dropped no bomb on you," Abe said. He urged India to use Japan to strengthen ties with the US, saying, "We are ready and willing to be used by India to enhance your ties with America."
China, he said, would remain "an opportunity and a risk" for a long time. "But let us not be confused and jump into the wrong bandwagon and choose a wrong partner. In America, we see the oldest democracy. In China, we see an autocracy, both the oldest and newest in the making as it is still in the making," he said.
"There is no question which side we Japan and India should take. Yet in times of financial challenges, the US needs us as much as we need it," he added.
He invited the Indian Navy to visit the first Japanese offshore base in Djibouti and reciprocate it with Japanese goodwill visits to the Andaman & Nicobar Islands. "We should take pictures and movies about the exercises at sea, your visits to Djibouti and our calls to the Andaman and publish them to the world because allies should not be shy about such things, and for alliance management, publicity counts," he said.
Indian and Japanese navies should meet up more often and perform "simple" exercises. "The Americans may watch us performing small exercises, which is OK with all of us. Even the Chinese may fly over us to see what's going on, which is more than welcome," he added.
Ex-Japanese PM seeks security tie-up with India - The Times of India
---------- Post added at 08:49 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:48 PM ----------
India, Japan should work with US to secure Asia: Abe
Advocating greater military interaction between India and Japan to secure the sea lanes of communication in and around Asia, former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday called on New Delhi to shelve its ‘America shyness’ and enhance ties with Washington.
The former PM, who initiated a strategic partnership between India and Japan during a visit here in 2007, said India and Japan need to work more closely with other regional powers like Australia and Indonesia to secure sea lanes of commerce to ensure a stable Asia.
Without naming China, Abe said only democratic powers like India and Japan should be responsible for safeguarding these common spaces to ensure stability. “No political regime other than open democracy should be responsible for safeguarding the common good,” he said at a lecture, organised by the Indian Council of World Affairs and the Japan Institute for National Fundamentals, here on Tuesday.
The leader made a strong case for greater naval ties between India and Japan in partnership with the US, saying the Indian Navy needs to conduct more joint training exercises and ensure officer exchanges with Japan.
The former PM took a dig at Beijing, which in recent days has protested military exercises in the South China sea and other waters it considers disputed.
India, Japan should work with US to secure Asia: Abe - Indian Express
NEW DELHI: Usually, Japanese leaders are even more cautious than their Indian counterparts. Certainly, plain-speaking in an international forum is not their forte. Not Shinzo Abe, former Japanese PM.
Speaking at the Indian Council for World Affairs here, Abe said India and Japan should team up to fill a "strategic void". Ultimately, he said, India, Japan and the US should work together to provide stability and safety in Asia. The thinly-veiled reference to China and the need to balance it was not lost.
Indian and Japanese navies, he said, should conduct joint "simple" exercises, every time the Japanese navy is passing through the Indian Ocean. This would give them a greater comfort and interoperability with their Indian counterparts. The Indian Navy, he observed, has now developed deep ties with its US counterpart, and this should be extended to the Japanese.
Japan pulled out of the tri-national Malabar exercises this year after the Fukushima disaster.
Abe said the US would be a weaker power going forward. But this was the time that both Japan and India should be supporting the US because "India's success is in Japan's best interests and Japan's success is in the best interests of India".
Once it was seen that India and Japan can together maintain the safety of sea lanes in Asia, Abe predicted, this would reassure the Vietnamese, Americans and South Koreans, "if not the Chinese". The safety of the sea lanes had been a US responsibility since the 1950s.
"I shall put it this way that let 'Popeye' eat spinach for a while. In the meantime, let India and Japan work together with the Americans, so that there will be no strategic void,"
he said, to appreciative laughter. "Let us work even more closely together with the US, Australia and other maritime democracies to invest in building a robust, open, liberal and safe and stable East Asia Summit-led Asia," he said.Abe also addressed the "mixed feelings" in India about the US. Saying that Japan too shared those feelings he pointed out that Japan has had a 60-year alliance with the US, which has served them well. "There have been good times and bad times," he said, but on the whole, it was a productive partnership.
Asking Indians to shed this ambivalent attitude towards the US, Abe said, "You can shelve your American shyness for a moment and let your realist-pragmatist side prevail. After all, America dropped no bomb on you," Abe said. He urged India to use Japan to strengthen ties with the US, saying, "We are ready and willing to be used by India to enhance your ties with America."
China, he said, would remain "an opportunity and a risk" for a long time. "But let us not be confused and jump into the wrong bandwagon and choose a wrong partner. In America, we see the oldest democracy. In China, we see an autocracy, both the oldest and newest in the making as it is still in the making," he said.
"There is no question which side we Japan and India should take. Yet in times of financial challenges, the US needs us as much as we need it," he added.
He invited the Indian Navy to visit the first Japanese offshore base in Djibouti and reciprocate it with Japanese goodwill visits to the Andaman & Nicobar Islands. "We should take pictures and movies about the exercises at sea, your visits to Djibouti and our calls to the Andaman and publish them to the world because allies should not be shy about such things, and for alliance management, publicity counts," he said.
Indian and Japanese navies should meet up more often and perform "simple" exercises. "The Americans may watch us performing small exercises, which is OK with all of us. Even the Chinese may fly over us to see what's going on, which is more than welcome," he added.
Ex-Japanese PM seeks security tie-up with India - The Times of India
---------- Post added at 08:49 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:48 PM ----------
India, Japan should work with US to secure Asia: Abe
Advocating greater military interaction between India and Japan to secure the sea lanes of communication in and around Asia, former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday called on New Delhi to shelve its ‘America shyness’ and enhance ties with Washington.
The former PM, who initiated a strategic partnership between India and Japan during a visit here in 2007, said India and Japan need to work more closely with other regional powers like Australia and Indonesia to secure sea lanes of commerce to ensure a stable Asia.
Without naming China, Abe said only democratic powers like India and Japan should be responsible for safeguarding these common spaces to ensure stability. “No political regime other than open democracy should be responsible for safeguarding the common good,” he said at a lecture, organised by the Indian Council of World Affairs and the Japan Institute for National Fundamentals, here on Tuesday.
The leader made a strong case for greater naval ties between India and Japan in partnership with the US, saying the Indian Navy needs to conduct more joint training exercises and ensure officer exchanges with Japan.
The former PM took a dig at Beijing, which in recent days has protested military exercises in the South China sea and other waters it considers disputed.
India, Japan should work with US to secure Asia: Abe - Indian Express
