Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s three-day visit to New Delhi unveiled a series of significant strides forward in the India-Japan bilateral relationship.
Beyond the agreements on AI and energy resilience, the summit marked an important milestone with the launch of the first India–Japan defence co-development project and a joint roadmap on economic security.
These initiatives move the partnership from strategic dialogue to practical cooperation in defence technology, critical supply chains and advanced manufacturing, giving both countries greater resilience in an increasingly uncertain Indo-Pacific.
It’s in striking contrast to the increasingly transactionalist foreign policies being pursued by the world’s two main protagonists: the United States and China.
The United States is now openly admitting the truth long known to foreign policy elites around the world. It is an approach which, according to Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, is “grounded in the realities of power and interests”.
Meanwhile Xi Jinping has concertedly pursued China’s national interests since assuming power in 2012, calling from early in his tenure for China to act “befitting its role as a great power”.
But India would do well to remember that transactionalism ultimately only benefits global superpowers – the United States and China – and that successful foreign policy still depends on long-term relationships of shared values and trust.
India’s recent pivot towards the EU is a promising sign that policymakers have woken up to the trade-offs that come with geopolitical opportunity. The EU-India Free Trade Agreement signed in January – described by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen as ‘the mother of all deals’ – marks a significant long-term economic opportunity, also signalling the clear intent from both parties to derisk from China.
Just two months later, Foreign Minister Jaisankar told journalists that India is looking to ‘drastically’ deepen ties with Europe through a wider trade agreement and defence investment deals, a sign of what is to come.
The Indo-Pacific is a more critical region to India’s economic and physical security, accounting for 60% of the world’s GDP and the same proportion of global maritime trade. Given the rapid escalation of security threats the region now faces, it is time India pursues an Indo-Pacific policy with the same conviction.
Of course, India maintains numerous regional partnerships. Most notably, the Quad arrangement with the United States, Japan and Australia is already yielding results: the 11th Meeting of Quad Foreign Ministers in New Delhi in May agreed to launch the Indo-Pacific Maritime Surveillance Collaboration to integrate maritime surveillance capabilities and information sharing between the four like-minded partners.
And India has a nascent vision for the region through MAHASAGAR, a policy that frames our engagement in the Indo-Pacific through a programme of collective security and shared growth. But if we are to set out a sustainable programme for the region based on these ideals, India needs to build long-term partnerships with like-minded nations based on shared values and trust.
Japan stands out through its clear articulation of a Free and Open Indo Pacific vision. At a recent speech in Vietnam, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi set out her updated version of FOIP, clarifying that Japan will play a more proactive role than ever in upholding a rules-based order in the region.
And at the recent Shangri La Dialogue, Defence Minister Shinjirō Koizumi further outlined a vision for FOIP based on the three principles of trust, transparency and dialogue. It is imperative, Koizumi argued, that like-minded partners work more closely together to respond to the unprecedented threat landscape where “the boundary between peacetime and contingency is becoming increasingly unclear”.
Takaichi won a landslide electoral victory in February. Her decision to rapidly increase defence spending and expedite the revision of Japan’s Three Strategic Documents are making Tokyo a major player in the Indo-Pacific whose vision for the region clearly aligns with India’s.
Indian policymakers have begun to sense the opportunity at hand. Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s recent visit to New Delhi resulted in the signing of three landmark documents covering economic security, energy resilience and AI. It follows Prime Minister Modi’s trip to Tokyo last year, where Japan pledged to more than double investment in India to $61 billion over the next decade.
In February, both nations’ armed forces held their first expert exchange on amphibious operations to deter actions that threaten maritime security. A week later, India conducted the first joint trilateral naval exercises with Japan and Indonesia in the Andaman Sea, in clear recognition of the urgent need to partner with nations that share our concerns for regional peace and stability
Closer alignment with Japan may negatively impact India’s relations with China, of course, but China’s increasingly assertive behaviour in the East China Sea, South China Sea and along the Line of Actual Control has made strategic trust increasingly difficult.
Chinese Major General Meng Xiangqing seized the opportunity at Shangri La to launch an attack on Japan’s ‘legacy of militarism’, but Indian policymakers must see Meng’s comments for what they were: a blatant attempt to undermine the push towards collective security among like-minded Indo-Pacific partners.
Let us not forget that China possesses more than 600 nuclear warheads, a figure expected to rise to more than 1000 by 2030; Japan has none, and continues to lead the global conversation on nuclear non-proliferation. As Koizumi has explained, China’s claims that Japan seeks a ‘new militarism’ fall flat when only one nation is pursuing a rapid expansion of its nuclear capabilities.
The cold-eyed pursuit of the national interest without regard for long term partnership is fashionable in foreign policy circles, but we are foolish to disregard the value of trust and partnerships built over years and decades.
As the Indo-Pacific enters a period of strategic uncertainty, India has an opportunity not merely to respond to regional developments but to help shape them. Stronger partnerships with Japan and other like-minded democracies will ensure that India remains a leading architect of a free, open, inclusive and rules-based Indo-Pacific for decades to come.
Disclaimer
Views expressed above are the author’s own.
