Kishida to meet Modi, to unveil new Indo-Pacific plan – 16 years after Shinzo Abe’s landmark ‘Confluence of Two Seas’ speech

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will articulate in New Delhi on Monday a new plan to counter China in Indo-Pacific – more than one-and-a-half decades after one of his predecessors, Shinzo Abe, had addressed Parliament of India and laid the foundation of an “Arc of Democracy” to contain the communist country’s belligerence in the region.

Kishida arrived in New Delhi early on Monday. He will hold a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Hyderabad House later on the day before delivering the 41st Sapru House lecture at the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA). He will depart from New Delhi on Tuesday.

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“I would like to exchange views (with Modi) on the role that our two countries should play in resolving the mountain of international challenges, and to further strengthen our Special Strategic Global Partnership,” Kishida tweeted just before departing from Tokyo for New Delhi. He noted that while Japan was chairing the G7, India was holding the presidency of the G20 this year.

“In addition, during my stay in India, I will announce a new plan on free and open Indo-Pacific,” Japanese Prime Minister said, adding: “We will present concrete ideas about the future of free and open Indo-Pacific at this historical turning point.”

The speech by the Japanese Prime Minister at the ICWA is going to be a highlight of his tour to New Delhi as he is likely to unveil a new action plan for the Indo-Pacific region.

A source in New Delhi told DH that Japan’s new action plan for the Indo-Pacific might include expanding support to developing nations in the region and strengthening their security capabilities to contain the hegemonic aspirations of China. Kishida would discuss with new action plan with Modi and emphasize on enhancing Japan’s cooperation with India and its other partners in the ‘Quad’ – Australia and the United States – in implementing the new action plan, added the source, aware of New Delhi’s engagements with Tokyo.

Kishida is going to deliver the lecture at the ICWA in New Delhi almost 16 years after the then Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had addressed a joint session of both the Houses of Parliament of India on August 22 in 2007. Abe’s landmark speech, titled “Confluence of the Two Seas”, had laid the foundation of the concept of Indo-Pacific and a larger cooperation between India and Japan as well as other nations in building an “arc of democracy” to counter the hegemonic aspirations of China. His speech had played a key role in shaping the Quad – a coalition forged by India, Japan, Australia and the United States – to promote the vision for a “free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific”.

Abe was assassinated at Nara in Japan on July 8, 2022.

The Quad was elevated to the level of the leaders in 2021. India, however, resisted the US attempt to turn it into a security alliance as it was not keen to remain in a group overtly adversarial to China. The Quad, unlike the AUKUS initiative by Australia, the UK and the US, continued with its benign agenda to counter Beijing’s bid to spread its influence in the Indo-Pacific. The four-nation coalition thus remained focused on development partnership and cooperation in education and healthcare.

Kishida and Modi will on Monday also discuss the agenda of the Quad Summit, which would be held in Sydney in May and which would see the two leaders joining Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and the US President Joe Biden.

Kishida is unveiling Tokyo’s new plan for free and open Indo-Pacific at a time when tension between Japan and China escalated over conflicting territorial claims over Senkaku (in Japanese) or Diaoyu (in Chinese) islands in East China Sea. A patrol ship of China Coast Guard on March 15 last drove away the vessels of the fishermen from Japan from near the Senkaku or Diaoyu islands. Beijing accused the fishermen from Japan of intruding into the territorial waters of China. Tokyo, on the other hand, alleged that the patrol ship of the China Coast Guard violated the sovereignty of Japan.

Tokyo has of late initiated countermeasures in response to militarization of disputed islands by Beijing. Japan on March 16 moved a large number of troops, including missile units, to a new military base set up on Ishigaki island in its Okinawa prefecture, in order to bolster its defencive capabilities against belligerence of China. The new military base is just about 200 kilometres south of the disputed Senkaku (Diaoyu) islands and is the fourth such base set up by Japan to respond to military muscle-flexing by China since 2016.