Description
Japan and India are the two oldest democracies in Asia. Since the inception of their diplomatic relations in 1952, the two countries have maintained a cordial relation. They remain aloof during the Cold War period due to their ideological differences. Thereafter, India follow the liberalization of its economy followed by the “Look East” policy has had positive impact in the bilateral relations. This was soon faded away due to India’s second Pokhran nuclear test in 1998 followed by Japanese economic sanction. However, the relations normalized soon when Mori visited India in 2000. The bilateral relations had further improved when the two countries signed the “global strategic partnership” during Koizumi’s visit in 2005. Since then, the two countries has been engaging in different aspects of strategic partnership to promote rule-based order that ensures a peaceful and stable Indo-Pacific. Thus, different scholars and statesman from both the countries started discussion on building a new architecture of ‘rule-based order’ in the Indo-Pacific. To that end, Japan and India has been engaging in bilateral and multilateral dialogue such as G4, Shangri-La Dialogue, Quad, etc. This paper will try to see how far the two countries are able to woo international community to push the idea of “rule-based order” in Indo-Pacific.
