India-Japan Strategic Cooperation and Implications for U.S. Strategy in the Indo-Asia-Pacific Region

Abstract

The emerging strategic relationship between India and Japan is significant for the future security and stability of the Indo-Asia-Pacific region. It is also a critical emergent relationship for U.S. security objectives across the Asia-Pacific. India possesses the most latent economic and military potential of any state in the wider Asia-Pacific region. Therefore, India is the state with the greatest potential outside of the United States itself to contribute to the objectives of theRebalance to the Pacific announced by Washington in 2011. This rebalance was aimed at fostering a stable, prosperous, and rules-based region where peace, prosperity, and wide respect for human rights are observed and extended. Implicit in the rebalance was a hedge against a China acting to challenge the existing postWorld War II rules-based international and regional order. India and Japan share complementary, but not identical, strategic visions. Both seek to manageand minimizethe potential negative impacts from the rise of China in accord with their own strategic perspectives. As of early 2017, Japan perceives Chinas growing assertive actions to be a great and rising strategic threat. India is concerned about Chinas increasingly worrisome behavior but finds itself relatively more dependent upon China for economic growth and less worried about its immediate physical threat than Japan. As a result, India has been, and will continue to be, less vocal in complaints about Chinese behavior, preferring to warn Beijing with subtle signaling and actions. There is broad bipartisan domestic support in Japan and India for enhancing bilateral strategic cooperation now and moving forward. Prime Minister Shinzo Abes role has been a critical factor in the rapid growth of the strategic relationship, and the partnership is unlikely to have moved as far or as fast without his leadership.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 01, 2017
Accession Number
AD1030354

Entities

People

  • James J. Przystup
  • Thomas Iii F. Lynch

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  • National Defense University

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