Concerns are mounting about China’s enlarging activities both in the Indo-Pacific and the Indian Ocean regions and China’s recent security agreement with the Solomon Islands in the Southern Pacific is a wake up call to all nations in the Indo-Pacific, M.K. Narayanan, former National Security Advisor and former Governor of West Bengal, said.
“Heightened vigilance is, hence, called for, and the main bulwark against the Chinese threat to the Indo-Pacific is a united effort by Japan and India. It, hence behoves India and Japan to devise a strategy that can blend with the needs of the entire Indo-Pacific region to counter ongoing threats,” he said.
Mr. Narayanan was speaking at a symposium on “India and Japan in Free and Open Indo-Pacific” organised by the Indo-Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Consulate General of Japan, Chennai.
There was little doubt that in Indo-Pacific region, India and Japan remained China’s principal antagonists, Mr. Narayanan said and explained that both have long standing disputes with China — the latter over the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea and the former on the long defined land border and lately, China had attempted to move into the Indian Ocean region, and had expanded its Navy base for this purpose.
Horimoto Takenori, Visiting Professor, Gifu Women’s University, said that in the Indo-Pacific, tremendous transformations were taking place but there was no mechanism for governance due to different perceptions and individual interests.
Taga Masayuki, Consul-General of Japan, Chennai, said that this year marked the 70 th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Japan and India and therefore, it was timely to have such a symposium to discuss how Japan and India could cooperate more closely in the era of Indo-Pacific. “In the last 70 years, Japan and India have been nourishing and strengthening our friendly and cooperative relations,” he said.
