Shinzo Abe set out a daring imaginative and prescient for India-Japan partnership

By PTI

NEW DELHI: In his first stint because the prime minister for little over a 12 months starting 2006, Shinzo Abe set out a daring imaginative and prescient for a quantum leap in India-Japan ties largely based mostly on the larger “confluence” of the 2 seas — the Pacific and Indian Oceans.

By the time, Abe stepped down because the prime minister in 2020 ending his second stint on the high workplace after an eight-year tenure, the relations had been in a a lot deeper trajectory encompassing cooperation in a variety of areas with a broader goal of a free and open Indo-Pacific.

In a historic deal with to the Indian Parliament in August 2007, Abe elaborated on his bold roadmap for the India-Japan strategic ties to collectively take care of geopolitical challenges and for the general prosperity of Asia.

“This partnership is an association in which we share fundamental values such as freedom, democracy, and the respect for basic human rights as well as strategic interests,” Abe stated.

“Japanese diplomacy is now promoting various concepts in a host of different areas so that a region called ‘the Arc of Freedom and Prosperity’ will be formed along the outer rim of the Eurasian continent. The Strategic Global Partnership of Japan and India is pivotal for such pursuits to be successful,” he stated.

The grandson of former prime minister Nobusuke Kishi, Abe believed a more in-depth strategic partnership between India and Japan may very well be a game-changer for Asia because it may convey prosperity to the nations of the area.

The 12 months 2013 was a big 12 months because it noticed the first-ever go to of then Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko to India.

The bilateral relations had been upgraded to ‘Special Strategic and Global Partnership’ in 2014 and since then the ties noticed a serious upswing together with in areas of civil-nuclear cooperation, maritime safety, commerce and defence and safety.

In 2015, Modi, in a pleasant gesture, hosted Abe for an iconic Ganga Aarti in Varanasi. Both the leaders supplied prayers and witnessed the Ganga Aarti at Dashashwamedh Ghat.

In September 2017, Modi broke protocol to obtain Abe on the Ahmedabad airport when the Japanese chief arrived for the twelfth India-Japan annual summit.

Abe, his spouse, and Modi additionally participated in an eight-km roadshow in an open jeep on their technique to the Sabarmati Ashram to pay tributes to Mahatma Gandhi.

When Modi visited Japan in 2018, Abe hosted him at his ancestral residence in Yamanashi, in first such reception accorded to a international chief.

Recently, when Modi travelled to Japan for the Quad summit, he met Abe, the place they mentioned the broad canvas of the India-Japan partnership.

The two nations now have multiple-level frameworks for engagements, together with annual summits between the prime ministers, the annual international ministerial strategic dialogue, two-plus-two ministerial talks and NSA-level dialogue.

“Mr Abe made an immense contribution to elevating India-Japan relations to the level of a Special Strategic and Global Partnership. Today, whole India mourns with Japan and we stand in solidarity with our Japanese brothers and sisters in this difficult moment,” Modi stated following the information of Abe’s dying.

The 67-year-old Japanese chief died after being shot whereas giving a marketing campaign speech within the southern Japanese metropolis of Nara. He was rushed to a hospital after he was shot on the occasion. Hours later the hospital declared him useless.

Abe was prime minister of Japan from 2006 to 2007 after which once more for a second stint from 2012 to 2020.