The Big Story: Three’s company

The pomp and circumstance of Japan President Shinzo Abe’s visit to India last week was followed up by a more sober meeting in New York on Monday between the ministers in charge of external affairs of India, Japan and the United States. The trilateral meeting concluded with a statement that was squarely aimed at Beijing.

According to the readout from the US State Department, “The ministers discussed the importance of a free and open Indo-Pacific region underpinned by a resilient, rules-based architecture that enables every nation to prosper.” That is a reference to China One Belt One Road initiative, which seeks to build maritime and land-based connectivity between Asia and Europe, but has received pointed criticism, especially from India which refused to take part, for being more colonial in its approach than egalitarian. India’s readout of the meeting focused even more on the need for “respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity” in connectivity initiatives.

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The three nations also made a reference to the South China Sea, another theatre in which Beijing has sought to exercise its influence, seemingly disproportionately. “The ministers also affirmed the importance of the freedoms of navigation and overflight and the free flow of lawful commerce in the region and around the globe, including in the South China Sea,” the State Department readout said.

India’s developing relations with the US are no secret, especially as China has started to be more aggressive towards New Delhi, preventing India’s entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group, refusing to assist in taking on Pakistani terror and, as the Doklam standoff revealed, directly threatening Indian interests. But the bonhomie with Abe and closer ties with Japan present a new opportunity.

Despite New Delhi’s claims that ties between the countries are “natural”, the relationship with Tokyo has been primarily transactional, focusing mostly on trade until now. But a chest-thumping China forces others to come together, and over the last few years, India seems much more prepared to embrace Japan as a strategic partner. Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar admitted as much in a talk before Abe visited. “Today, the two countries clearly see each other much more strategically... [and] realise the importance of shaping Asia’s architecture promoting its growth, development, and stability,” he said.

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In the past, India has been reluctant to go too far with Japan or even the US, often attempting to avoid annoying China, which it shares a massive border with and is also the country’s largest trading partner. But Doklam, OBOR and China’s continued support to Pakistan should clarify India’s stance further. Past concerns about working too closely with Japan seem to have given way, with the signs coming from the very top through Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s embrace of Abe in Ahmedabad. Statements after the visit certainly took the relationship forward, welcoming Japan into the Indian infrastructure market, adding its expertise to investment in the Chinese-threatened North East and even talking of joint surveillance and ties in the Indian Ocean. China’s willingness to drop its facade has been useful in helping India see clearer what its role in Asia will end up being. New Delhi now needs to double down on efforts to build an alternative rules-based order that can respond to more Chinese aggression, and its clear that any such attempt will need Tokyo on board.

The Big Scroll

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Punditry

  1. On Pakistan, “we should develop a political consensus on a broad policy framework, based on rational and pragmatic approaches, so that the government of the day does not have to look over its shoulder before taking every step and our policy is not held hostage to the most strident voices in our TV studios”, writes Sharat Sabharwal in the Indian Express.
  2. “The battle to gain acceptance in the Bengali mindset, particularly among the bhadralok, is a humongous task for the BJP,” writes Chandan Mitra in the Hindustan Times. “Equally formidable is the challenge to dismantle the suburban and rural network that the Trinamool possesses.”
  3. Padmashree Gehl Sampath in the Hindu says India needs a clear and tough policy stance on intellectual property both domestically and at the multilateral level, and should push for a new global deal that balances the property system with development.
  4. “Whatever may be the proximate causes [of India’s economic downturn], in light of the fact that all four demand drivers are losing steam, this is a prime case for a fiscal stimulus. That’s because the other three demand drivers will take time to energize,” writes Ajit Ranade in Mint.

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Vinita Govindarajan introduces you to Poochi Venkat, a Chennai photographer who has been documenting the city’s insect life for 25 years.

“Though the lean, bespectacled photographer has been taking images of insects for 25 years, Venkat still exuded enthusiasm every time he spotted even the most common insect in the park. Every few steps, he would stop to turn over a leaf here or a twig there, and peer at it closely. ‘I always tell people that I’m taking them not on a photo walk, but a photo crawl,’ he said, while casually picking up a domino cockroach.

It was his infectious interest in photographing insects that led officials in Chennai’s Guindy National Park to bestow upon him the nickname, Poochi, which is Tamil for insect. ‘I thought it was the most hilarious thing I heard,’ said Venkat, who willingly embraced the moniker, becoming Poochi Venkat. It is under the same name that he released his new book, Insects: Guardians of Nature, a compilation of photographs of insects across the city of Chennai. ‘I wanted to show people that despite the concrete trapping of the city, the most beautiful creatures still thrive and exist here.’”