When it comes to the economy, the sun of China’s might is casting a Himalayan shadow over India. The result of this disproportion is felt not only in their bilateral relations, but in China’s growing economic involvement in India’s immediate neighborhood and New Delhi’s limited scope of reactions. Over the last few years, however, one of the countries that has offered India various types of assistance on this front is its Quad partner Japan.
Briefly speaking, there are four areas where Indo-Japanese cooperation against China can be noticed: growing security collaboration; Japan’s promises to help India reduce its economic dependence on China; Japanese assistance in enhancing infrastructure connections between India and its neighbors, and joint Indo-Japanese projects in smaller South Asian states.
A Partnership Based on Bases?
There is currently no evidence of a Chinese naval presence in most South Asian countries. All talk of a “string of pearls” – a chain of navy bases which the People’s Liberation Army-Navy (PLAN) was to surround India with – turned out to be more fiction than reality. China does not seem to be operating a navy base anywhere in South Asia, and does not even seem to have rights to possess one. The only exception may be in Pakistan, but even there evidence of a permanent military presence has not appeared to date, and there is no proof that the Gwadar port is becoming such a base – though some observers point out that such a base may potentially be established elsewhere in the Gwadar district.
At the same time, what China is actually doing in the Indian Ocean with a growing number of naval appearances, and with the opening of a base in Djibouti, is concerning enough for India. There is also no ..
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