Japan’s Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was shot dead in the city of Nara today while he was delivering a speech at a campaign event. The attacker in his 40s shot twice at the former leader in the western part of Japan. While the world leaders are mourning his death, PM Modi has announced one-day national mourning on Saturday ie the 9th of July. Here we recall Shinzo Abe’s ties with India and Indian PM Narendra Modi.
Breaking: Indian PM Modi announces one day national mourning on Saturday (9th July) on demise of former Japanese PM Shinzo Abe
— Sidhant Sibal (@sidhant) July 8, 2022
India has had and always has maintained good, positive, and developing relations with the country of Japan since the very beginning. Former PM Shinzo Abe was small when he used to listen to potential of India-Japan ties from his maternal grandfather, the then Japanese PM Nobusuke Kishi who had visited India in 1957.
Delivering a speech at the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA) in the year 2011, Abe remembering the old ties had quoted that “a strong India is in the best interest of Japan, and a strong Japan is in the best interest of India.”
Reportedly, the India-Japan economic and strategic ties went on to become so strong that Japan to date has supported around 100 infrastructure projects in India in the sector of power, transportation, shipping, railways, renewable energy, and more. While deepened old ties between the two countries formed a steady base for the overall strategic development, the expansion of the bilateral association was furthered only when Abe took over as the Prime Minister of the country.
Serving two terms as the prime minister of Japan, Abe sought to upgrade the strategic Japan–India relationship by introducing the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QUAD) between Japan, the United States, Australia, and India.
Shinzo Abe proposed the idea of Quad to India’s Parliament in 2007
Back in the year 2007, when Abe was the Prime Minister of Japan for a year, he visited India and addressed the joint session of the Indian Parliament. Delivering the speech ‘the Confluence of the Two Seas’, Abe proposed to promote the concept of ‘the Arc of Freedom and Prosperity’ that would be formed along the outer rim of the Eurasian continent.
Putting forth the idea of Quadrilateral Security Dialogue on the table, Abe then said, “By Japan and India coming together in this way, this ‘broader Asia’ will evolve into an immense network spanning the entirety of the Pacific Ocean, incorporating the United States of America and Australia. Open and transparent, this network will allow people, goods, capital, and knowledge to flow freely”.
Further quoting the book ‘Confluence of the Two Seas’ written by the Mughal Prince Dara Shikoh in 1655, the former leader said that ‘the different streams, having their sources in different places, all mingle their water in the sea’. He also emphasized the importance of the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean and their confluence and reiterated the idea of ‘broader Asia’ to form a free, open, and prosperous Indo-Pacific. The idea was seeded in the year 2004 after the United States asked the four countries to form a group for a joint humanitarian relief operation following the Indonesian tsunami.
India under Congress rule was hesitant to revive Quad amid China concerns
Later, this group which was formed for the international relief operation turned vigorous to become a forcibly robust countering clout against the muscular rise of China in the Indo-Pacific. The rise of China disturbed the Quad equation in the year 2007 after Australia reassured China that ‘so-called quadrilateral dialogue’ with India was not something that the country was pursuing. Also, the then Indian PM Manmohan Singh had mentioned in 2008 that the initiative ‘never got going’. Reports mention that India before 2014 has been hesitant about reviving the quadrilateral for a number of reasons, the rise of China being one of those.
Notably, after former Gujarat CM Narendra Modi assumed the office of Prime Minister of India in the year 2014, he first visited Japan in the month of September to upgrade the bilateral relationship to a special strategic and global partnership. Under the leadership of PM Modi, the India-Japan relationship encompassed issues from civilian nuclear energy to maritime security, bullet trains to quality infrastructure, Act East policy to Indo-Pacific strategy. The group which was almost terminated and later rose in prominence over the years gained new traction following deadly border clashes between India and China in 2020.
Japanese PM @AbeShinzo, his wife Akie Abe and PM @narendramodi pay tributes to Mahatma Gandhi at Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad
— The Times Of India (@timesofindia) September 13, 2017
Pics: ANI pic.twitter.com/566wJlXNyM
PM Modi had shared a close personal friendship with Shinzo Abe. As PM, Abe visited India in 2017 with his wife. His graceful acceptance of India’s culture and his call to highlight the strategic potential of the bilateral partnership were received well by the Indian government.
In the year 2021, the Quad leaders including Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, PM Narendra Modi, Japanese PM Yoshihide Suga, and US President Joe Biden participated in the first physical Quad meeting and issued a joint statement on a wide range of topics from the security and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region to partnership on Covid-19 response and relief. The leaders stated that they were dedicated to achieving security and peace in the world, especially in the Indo-Pacific region. They also assured to extend cooperation in the matters of Science and Technology, cyberspace, Climate change, and cooperation on critical and emerging technologies.
In the second Quad summit that was held in Tokyo this year, India emphasized developing and strengthening bilateral strategic relations with each of the Quad member countries and pressed to focus on skill development. The summit meanwhile also shaped the agenda for more comprehensive economic cooperation and enhanced security collaborations among the member nations.
‘Without PM Modi, Quad could not have flown’
Recently, Tomohiko Taniguchi, the former Special Advisor to Japan’s then Prime Minister Shinzo Abe hailed PM Narendra Modi for his contribution to restoring the focus back to the Indo-Pacific region. In an exclusive interview with The Sunday Guardian, Taniguchi stated that without India, and without PM Narendra Modi, the Quad could not have flown. “There was a degree of hesitancy among the elite community members of Delhi, about India joining a largely US-led camp. It took the courage and straightforwardness of Narendra Modi to have overcome the legacy of non-alignment”, he noted.
He added that the primary reason why Shinzo Abe expanded the geographic horizon from Asia-Pacific to Indo-Pacific was that he wanted to include India, being aware that the Indian Ocean would be the industrial highway for the 21st century. “Narendra Modi is fully aware of that concept, and has demonstrated vividly to the rest of the Quad member nations that India is very much a responsible partner of the Quad arrangement”, he was quoted.
India and Japan are truly natural partners in Asia. Their 70-years-old ties have deep civilization roots, an increasingly shared vision of a Rising Asia and a strong commitment to democratic values. This joint vision of the two countries and their potential to bring peace, prosperity and stability to ‘broader Asia’ was a belief that Shinzo Abe held firm. He truly believed in India’s capabilities when not many were willing to do so. In Shinzo Abe, India had a dear friend.
PM Modi has announced one day of national mourning on 9 July 2022 in honour of the former Japanese PM, Padma Vibhushan Shinzo Abe. A nation remains grateful to its friend from far away in the Pacific.
