US-Japan-India Global Strategic Axis in the Indo-Pacific

Both the countries agreed to work towards joint cooperation in the sector of defence security which consisted of an exchange of military liaison personnel, advanced training and expanded exercises between all the services and Special Forces. There was also a need to aim for closer collaboration on co-development and co-production of advanced defence components, equipments and defence industries partnership. The need for a strong and capable military was essential to support peace, stability and rule-based order in the Indo-Pacific region, hence this was the reason to reaffirm the United States support to India for the transfer of the military supplied from America. Keeping this understanding in the background, India had recently decided to procure MH-60R naval and AH-64E Apache helicopters. These capabilities would help in the advancement of shared security interests, job growth and industrial cooperation, which in turn would help boost the defence manufacturing industries and pave way for the ‘US policy of Make America Great Again’ and India’s flagship initiatives of ‘Make in India’ and ‘Skill India’. President Trump reaffirmed India’s status as a major defence partner, which would help it attain the highest consideration for procurement and technology transfer purposes. All this would lead to the defence cooperation enabling agreements like Basic exchange and Cooperation Agreement.

They aimed to strengthen homeland security through joint cooperation in fighting international crimes of human trafficking, terrorism, extremism and crimes in cyberspace. The U.S. Department of the Homeland Security as well as India’s Ministry of Home Affairs aims to reinvent the Homeland Security Dialogue and together to demonstrate their intent to combat illicit drugs; they announced the establishment of a new Counter Narcotics Working Group between their respective law enforcement agencies. The visit by President Trump built stronger relations leading to global convergences between both the countries. Though there were several developments in the sector of defence and manufacturing, trade, investment, science, and technology, they also worked on cooperating in the Indo-Pacific with its central theme of a free, open, inclusive, peaceful and prosperous Indo-Pacific region with freedom of navigation respecting international law and recognising ASEAN. The U.S. appreciated India’s effort as a net provider of security and assistance in humanitarian causes within the Indian Ocean region. 600 million dollars were given by the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) for financing renewable energy projects in India. Both the leaders keeping their Indo-Pacific commitment in mind led to a new partnership between USAID and India’s Development Partnership Administration for cooperation in third countries. Also, both the leaders decided to strengthen their consultation through the India-U.S.-Japan trilateral summits; the 2+2 Ministerial meeting mechanisms of the Foreign and Defence Ministers of India and the United States; and the India-U.S.-Australia-Japan Quadrilateral consultations, among others. Prime Minister Modi and President Trump looked forward to enhanced maritime domain awareness sharing among the United States, India, and other partners. This visit had a greater geostrategic meaning in the present geopolitics of the Indo-Pacific.

President Trump’s visit was a standalone visit with no stopovers at another country apart from India and this showed India’s strength as a diplomatic power. Greater emphasis has been put the Indo-American collaboration, keeping the rise of aggressive China amidst the global spread of the coronavirus pandemic. This global strategic convergence between India and the U.S has also helped build better relations with Japan as it is in a Security alliance with the U.S. and has excellent relations with India, considering Japan its all-weather friend. The Trump Administration is extremely serious about China being an economic and maritime threat to them and that’s why the “Free and Open Indo-Pacific: Advanced Vision report published by the U.S.” has put across all the efforts, policies and countries with whom the U.S. is interacting and safe guarding the Indo-Pacific from Chinese aggression. The U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence on 4 October 2018 quoted “China is the geopolitical glue that binds the relationship between India, Japan and the United States”.

Chinese aggression is a major point of convergence for all these three countries and had taken newer heights when the U.S. and China were in the ‘tug of power’, leading to a ‘trade war’. China has been trying to surpass the U.S. economy, and would like to become the Supreme Leader in the international scenario. Of course, America would do everything to stop that and protect its hegemony. Beijing has constantly pushed America, its allies and other partner interest countries by showing its aggressiveness near the waters of Taiwan, the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean, and emerging as a maritime aggressor for the U.S. On February 2020, ADM Phil Davidson, Commander, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command spoke about “the United States' Interests in the Indo-Pacific” and in his speech he mentioned that “the United States has been dealing with several commitments in the Indo-Pacific, like helping Japan out after its attack on the Senkaku Islands in 2014, armed attack on Philippines in the South China Sea and help renew Singapore’s security ties with the U.S. to secure the Indo-Pacific gateway from China”. ‘The China threat is real’ mentioned U.S. ADM Phil Davidson in his speech titled “China's Challenge to a Free and Open Indo-Pacific” quoted “Make no mistake, we (United States) are in full-blown strategic competition with China” as the Chinese army, navy, and air force challenge the regional security. Along with that, they have been developing long-range land-based missiles and anti-satellite weapons in order to threaten the U.S., its allies and its partner interests. The U.S. as a commitment to its vision for a Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP) shares this vision with other countries and regional institutions like Australia, Japan, New Zealand, India, the U.K., France, Canada and ASEAN have offered support to them from Chinese aggression, and termed it “a competition between a Beijing-centric order and a Free and Open Indo-Pacific”. The U.S. had pledged more than 100 million dollars in new assistance to the Pacific Islands and another 350 million dollars for its Indo-Pacific region and this has been done keeping in mind, the recent interest of the Chinese in the Pacific Islands and soon will be at logger-heads with Japan on this, and the U.S will have to step in.

India has long-standing territorial issues with China as well, as China has been constantly trying to get access into the Indian Ocean, which is presently a stronghold under the Indian Navy. China has been using its string of pearls strategy around India by building ports and infrastructural development in the neighbouring countries of India to keep a tab and get indirect access to the Indian Ocean as well as the Bay of Bengal. Thereby, China has been a constant issue for both these countries. In 2004, the U.S. Defence contractor Booz Allen Hamilton (BAH) has coined the term “String of Pearls” and mentioned about it in a report submitted to the Office of Net Assessment at the U.S. Department of Defence about China’s water interest being stretched to the south of the Eurasian continent and quoted â€œChina is building strategic relationships along the sea lanes from the Middle East to the South China Sea in ways that suggest defensive and offensive positioning to protect China’s energy interests, but also to serve broad security objectives”, and this description was followed by examples of the disputed islands and features of the South China Sea and wrote about a series of strategically significant ports like Gwadar in Pakistan, Chittagong Port in Bangladesh, Kyaukpyu in Myanmar and an ambitious canal project in Kra Ishthamus of Thailand and all these would provide Chinese vessels an alternative to the Strait of Malacca.

Japan has China in its immediate neighbourhood, and after the United States and North Korea, China holds the third most important position in Japan’s Foreign Policy. According to the Japan’s Diplomatic Bluebook 2019, bilateral relations with China was extremely important due to close economic ties, cultural and historical linkages. Their relations were extremely important as they were significantly responsible for peace and stability in Asia and across the world. But Japan does have concerns over China’s aggression in the South China Sea, and its claims on the Senkaku islands also make Japan very sceptical about China. Japan is rather in a fix as it has to maintain strong and peaceful relations with China due to its neighbourhood policy, but simultaneously is also worried about Chinese aggression. The difference is that India and the U.S. take strong stands on China; Japan shies away from taking a strong stand on China, as it believes that it would like to deal with the Chinese with stability and calm.

Also, China’s rise since the 2000’s was a major factor for India and Japan relations to blossom. Japan started looking for a stable democratic partner and India was the most suitable and so, since India and Japan have developed stronger relations. As India became more and more predominant in Japan’s foreign policy and its importance grew in the Indian Ocean. Japan was eager to continue to build and work with India and so, Japan invested in many manufacturing projects, infrastructural hub especially in the Northeast so that it can also get access to the ASEAN nations markets and also started to help India develop its Andaman and Nicobar Island as a strategic base as it is a major strategic point in the Indian Ocean and greater aspect in the Indo-pacific.

India and Japan form an indigenous part of the ‘Indo-Pacific axis’ especially with their respective Free and Indo-Pacific vision and strategies. They aimed for an Asia-Africa Growth Corridor (AAGC) as part of the Indo-Pacific vision, and have also worked on building stringer relations with the African nations. India and Japan have excellent relations with Africa and that has led to a trilateral cooperation with Africa where India is collaborating with Japan and Kenya to build a cancer hospital. There have been several joint infrastructural projects in the Indian Ocean littorals, which work towards the sub-regional cooperation and development assistance as an alternative to China’s initiative of the Belt and Road (BRI). India and Japan have strategically partnered in regionally sensitive locations of Andaman and Nicobar Islands and due to the Japan connection to these islands, India has renamed, the Ross Island as the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Dweep, Neil Island as Shaheed Dweep and Havelock Island as the Swaraj Dweep in 2018. Apart from that India and Japan have collaborated on setting up a diesel-powered energy plant in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Due to the China’s growing presence in the Indian Ocean, these islands are of critical and strategic importance. India has set up, an Indian Naval Air Station-the INS Kohassa in January 2019, and this island would be the access and movement to Indonesia as India has been working on setting up a deep-sea port at Sabang in Indonesia.

The Andaman and Nicobar Islands are essential as they help in maintaining India’s Act-East Policy and make it useful with Southeast Asian and Asian countries. With the collaboration between India, Japan and Sri Lanka of running the East Container Terminal in the Colombo Port only paves way for greater cooperation in the Indian Ocean and also dealing with China’s aggression. India along with the help of Japan’s NEC Corporation has been planning to install an undersea cable from Chennai to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and parallel to that, road connectivity projects have been linked from India’s north-eastern states to that of the ASEAN nations. India’s Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative, Japan’s Vientiane Vision 2.0 and ASEAN’s Outlook on the Indo-Pacific (AOIP), all with overlapping interests together could strive towards an region inclusive and open to all within the Indo-Pacific region and work towards joint infrastructural projects in the Bay of Bengal and Mekong along with BIMSTEC which would help initiate a defence and maritime security and cooperation and also pave way for future maritime convergences among all these players and that could help tackle Chinese aggression.

Therefore, Chinese aggression has actually paved the way for a ‘US-Japan-India Global Strategic Axis’ in the Indo-Pacific. In the words of the U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence, “China is the geopolitical glue that binds the relationship between India, Japan and the United States”, and this axis is the game-changer in the regional as well as the global purview of the Indio-Pacific region.

(Pic Courtesy-Jordan Elliott at unsplash.com)

(Ms Gitanjali Sinha Roy is researcher with cescube.com. The views expressed are personal)