India-Japan Special Strategic Partnership
At the turn of 21^st century, a significant event took place in the relations of the two countries. The Japanese Prime Minister Yashiro Mori paid a visit to India in the year 2000. This was the first visit of Japanese PM to India after a gap of ten years. He expressed his wish that two country should not only cooperate and collaborate at bilateral level but also at regionally and globally level. The two countries established a ‘Global partnership in the 21^st century’ during this visit[3]. Before this, Japan had established Global partnership only with the US. In the following year on October 10, 2001, Japanese government announced that it would withdraw all its sanctions imposed against India in the aftermath of its nuclear test in May 1998. However, a watershed moment in their relations came in the year 2005 during the visit of the Japanese PM Junichiro Koizumi to India. In the meeting with his counterpart, PM Manmohan Singh, the two leaders recognized a high degree of congruence in their political, economic and strategic interests. They agreed on a point that international situations had been the changing especially in Asia, which would be a leading economic growth center of the world in the 21^st century. The two countries undertook an ‘Eight fold initiative’ to broaden and deepen their Partnership. The following eight areas of cooperation were identified to take their partnership forward.  
1.     Enhanced Dialogue and Exchanges
2.     Comprehensive Economic Exchanges
3.     Enhanced Security Dialogue and Cooperation
4.     Science and Technology Initiative
5.     Cultural and Academic Initiative and Strengthening People to People contacts
6.     Cooperation in ushering a New Asian era
7.     Corroboration  in the UN and Other International Organizations
8.     Responding to International Challenges: Recognizing the threat posed by it[4]
The ‘eight fold initiative’ provided a strategic orientation to their relations and set the future course of their bilateral, regional and international cooperation. Two leaders agreed that “a strong, prosperous and dynamic India is in the interest of Japan and vice versa 2005. It was also decided that regular annual summit level meeting would take place between the two countries.  In the year 2006, strategic partnership was established during the visit of Indian PM Manmohan Singh to Japan[5]. This event was of great importance to their relations. Institution of the strategic partnership meant that the two countries had official realised and accepted the convergence of their long term vital national interests.
With the establishment of strategic partnership, their bilateral relations continued to gain momentum in the subsequent years. In the year 2010, a new initiative of two plus two dialogue at the secretary level was launched among the defence and foreign ministries of the two countries. The aim was to synchronise their foreign and security policies to strengthen their partnership. In the year 2014, during the historic visit of Indian PM Narendra Modi to Japan, he and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe raised the level of their strategic and global partnership to ‘special strategic and global partnership. Both leaders termed this meeting as the dawn of a new era in the relations of two countries. New Indian PM Modi chose Japan as the first country to visit outside of India’s immediate neighbourhood. He gave reason to choose Japan over other countries that it has a prominent role to play in India’s economy development and foreign policy. He also emphasized that Japan has a central role in India’s look east policy[6]. During the visit of Japanese PM to India in the year 2015, India and Japan unveiled their joint vision for peace, prosperity and security of the Indo-pacific region for the next one decade. Setting up of a long term common goals and vision for the region reflected their increasing confidence in their strategic partnership. They also stressed the importance of global commons in maritime, cyber and space field. Both leaders implicitly criticised China for its unilateral action in the waters of the South China Sea. This was the first reference to China in India-Japan joint communique. They recognised the importance of the South China Sea in regional security, trade and commerce, which is crucial for the peace and prosperity of the entire Indo-Pacific region. Both the nations have consensus that maritime dispute in the SCS should be peacefully resolved in line with the code of conduct of parties established in the year 2002 and international law like the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) till any further consensus emerged on the code of conduct among the parties involved in the this dispute[7]. Moreover, the two nations are committed to work with other concerned state actors in the Indo-Pacific region to make efforts to maintain the rights of unimpeded lawful commerce, overflight and the freedom of navigation in the international waters of this region. To realise their common vision of Indo-Pacific region, the two countries have decided to synergize Japan’s foreign policies of ‘Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy’ and ‘Expanded Partnership for Quality Infrastructure’ with India’s foreign policy of ‘Act East Policy’. They share common vision for the Indo-Pacific region that reflects in the common objectives of India’s Indo-Pacific Oceans’ Initiative (IPOI) and Japan’s Free and Open Indo-Pacific initiative[8].
The Japanese PM Abe committed to invest 35 billion dollar of public and private investment in the next five years in India during Indian PM Modi’s visit to Japan in the year 2014[9]. Japan has been financing critical infrastructure building in India.  A big contribution has been made by Japan in the infrastructure building in India with through its Official Development Assistance (ODA). Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), a government agency that disburse ODA in the developing world which in turn facilitate international cooperation for Japan. It provides financial help at very cheap interest rates to the developing nations. India has been the biggest and oldest recipient of ODA from Japan. This comes along with the technical expertise needed for these projects. A substantial part of the orders in the projects undertaken under the ODA, goes to Japanese companies. Thus Japan is also getting economic benefits from these projects. On the other side, India is getting much needed financial and technical support from JICA to build its critical infrastructure. Metro projects in major cities: Delhi, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Bangalore are being technically and financially supported by Japan. An 1500 km long Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (WDFC) from Delhi to Mumbai is being constructed, which will act as a back bone of Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor. An 1856 km long Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC) from Ludhiana (Punjab) to Dankuni (West Bengal) is also a major infrastructure projects undertaken under the grants of ODA from Japan[10]. During his visit to India in 2017, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe unveiled High Speed Railway project (the Shinkansen system) from Mumbai to Ahmedabad. Both the countries are also working upon the connectivity projects between the Northeast India and Southeast Asia for the sustainable economic development of India’s Northeast region. Moreover, Japanese ODA is also positively contributing to women empowerment, water security, forestry, human resource development, energy security and business environment improvement projects in India.  Japan has promised its full support to Indian government initiative such as Digital India, Make in India, Skill India, Smart City and Clean India. Along with it, Japan is the third largest investor in India. Japan has trained 3700 Indian in Japan-India Institutes for Manufacturing and Japanese Endowed Courses in 2021-22[11]. India and Japan have established Industrial Competitiveness Partnership in November 2021.
India-Japan economic relations are growing at fast pace after the establishment of the special strategic and global partnership in the year 2014. Japan has fulfilled its promise of making 35 billion dollar of public and private investment in India in five year as committed by former PM Abe in the year 2014. During the visit of Japan’s new PM Kishida Fumio to India in March 2022, he has promised another 42 billion dollar of public and private investment in India over the next five years.
Defence and security Cooperation
Defence and security is an essential part of their bilateral, regional and global partnership. Emerging maritime issues and threats in the Indo-Pacific region have bolstered their defence cooperation. Maritime cooperation is at the heart of their defence cooperation. They face common adversary in the form of China. Aggressive and expansionist policies of China at its land and maritime borders has brought the two countries together to form a solid defence partnership. Their defence partnership is growing stronger in recent years. Their first ever naval exercise was held as a part of Quad countries’ naval exercise along with Singapore navy. In the year 2008, the two countries laid the framework for their security cooperation and initiated cooperation at the highest level during the visit of Indian PM Manmohan Singh to Japan. Their defence and security partnership is on the rise since. Currently, the two countries have elaborate and comprehensive defence cooperation mechanism including the coast guard to the coast guards cooperation, military to military cooperation, defence policy dialogue and the two plus two dialogue. They conduct annual bilateral exercises among all three parts of their military namely Dharma Guardian, Shinyuu Maitri and Malabar between their army, air force and navy respectively. In 2012, the first bilateral naval exercise was conducted off the coast of Japan. In the year 2015, Japan became the regular participant in the annual Malabar naval exercise[12]. Three important agreements namely the Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement, the Transfer of the Defence Equipment and Technology and the Agreement concerning Security Measures for the Protection of Classified Military Information have been signed between the two countries. These agreements will further boost their defence cooperation. The two countries are collaborating their security and foreign policy through their annual two-plus-plus dialogue and summit meetings. Their two-plus-two dialogue has been elevated to the ministerial level. The first ministerial meeting of this dialogue took place in November 2019 in New Delhi.
Along with this, they are also collaborating on the number of important issues of climate action, terrorism, nuclear proliferation and space security humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HA/DR) exercises. A very important agreement on the Civil Nuclear Cooperation was signed during Indian PM Modi’s visit to Japan on November 11, 2016 after the negotiation process of 6 years and subsequently came into force on July 20, 2017[13].
Regional and international Cooperation
India and Japan have been able to establish multifaceted and multisectoral partnership. The two countries are cooperating at bilaterally, regionally and globally levels to serve their mutual national interests. Both countries are committed to use regional forum especially the East Asia Summit with the centrality of ASEAN nations in it, to discuss and resolve the issues of regional peace and security. They are also cooperation with the likeminded countries to promote peace and prosperity in the region. Aggressive and expansionist policies of China in the region has forced countries of the region to come together to counter it. Quadrilateral initiative of the US, Japan, India and Australia is one such initiative. A first in person meeting of Quad leaders at the summit level was held in September 2021, before this a virtual summit meet was held in March 2021[14]. The forth foreign ministers’ meeting of Quad was held in February 2022. The four countries have recognized their shared responsibility to safeguard and promote free and open international order based on the international laws. The four countries share and promote the vision of free and open Indo-Pacific region.
India and Japan are in the favour of reforms in the United Nations Security council (UNSC). They want expansion in the number of permanent and non-permanent members of the UNSC so that this body could reflect and accommodate the new geopolitical realities of the 21^st century. The two countries support each other permanent membership in the UN Security Council. Japan has helped India to become member of international control regimes of Missile Technology Control Regime, Australia Group and Wassenaar Arrangement. It also support India’s membership in the key nuclear proliferation control regime of Nuclear Supplier Group. The two countries in the wake of increasing convergence of their regional and global interest are committed to promote each other interests.