Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit to India will help to deeper the bond between two nations. From the perspective of strategic and economic growth, Japan is now possibly India’s closest strategic partner in the world.
India is likely to finalise the first defence purchases from Japan, the US-2 amphibious plane that has been tossed around between the two governments for some years. Some element of ‘Make in India” may be introduced. To roll out big infrastructure and connectivity projects in Asian and African countries, China, India and Japan are teaming up.
With the completion of the civil nuclear deal, India is looking at more collaboration with Japanese nuclear companies. The deal was finally signed between India and Japan in November 2016, and the Japanese parliament cleared it in June 2017.
The financial troubles of Westinghouse has necessitated a change in strategy. The Indian government will roll out the proverbial red carpet for the hundreds of Japanese nuclear companies whose expertise is desperately in need of markets, after Fukushima closed doors in Japan and many western countries.
Here the Indian government’s decision in May to build 10 new nuclear power reactors is expected to provide a glide path for Japanese companies. It also shifts India’s focus from negotiating for full reactors to using Japanese expertise and technology to augment Indian capacities, and, India hopes, in time to look for third country markets.
