Shinzo Abe, the longest serving prime minister in the history of Japan, who fell to gun violence in a society where such crimes are rare, was a tall leader by many means.
Abe, a recipient of Padma Vibhushan, the second highest civilian honour in the country, was a true friend of India and on his watch both countries scaled bilateral ties to a level that has not often been forged between two countries so consistently and progressively in recent times.
What helped the ties to remain on an upswing under his two terms in office as prime minister was the fact that India played a pivotal role in his vision for the world and he struck an unmatchable rapport with two successive Indian prime ministers who belonged to two different political spectrums in the country.
Against the inscrutable demeanour of most politicians in post-war era Japan, Abe was both a trailblazer and a risk taker. He led from the front the efforts for Japan shedding some of its pacifist pretensions and waking up to the real military threats lurking in its backyard from North Korea and more importantly China whose rise was anything but benign.
Abe knew the world was changing and Japan wasn’t up to speed. And Japan can’t change in isolation. He fervently spoke about the arc of democracy that stretched from the United States to India via Japan and Australia. This had eventually become the foundational principle of the Quad grouping consisting of the US, Japan, India and Australia batting for an open Indo-Pacific.
India was placed at the centre of this vision: “A strong India is in the best interest of Japan, and a strong Japan is in the best interest of India.” In his much-acclaimed book published in 2006 'Utsukushii Kuni-e' (Toward a Beautiful Country), Abe had said it would in no way surprise him if “in another decade, Japan-India relations overtake Japan-US and Japan-China ties”.
Addressing a joint session of Indian parliament in 2007 which he termed as the “highest organ of state power in this largest democracy in the world”, Abe underlined how geopolitical interests of the two countries meet more than half the way.
“The Pacific and the Indian Oceans are now bringing about a dynamic coupling as seas of freedom and of prosperity. A “broader Asia” that broke away geographical boundaries is now beginning to take on a distinct form. Our two countries have the ability — and the responsibility — to ensure that it broadens yet further and to nurture and enrich these seas to become seas of clearest transparency.”
Though Abe’s first term ended abruptly and this vision for Asia and the world went through many ups and downs, he came back to power to see the flowering of this idea from 2012. Abe is the first ever former Japanese prime minister to return to office since 1948.
From early on Abe was convinced that changes taking place between India and Japan in the 21st century are those that truly have no precedent. And not many years had elapsed since Japan came down heavily on India’s nuclear test in 1998 when Abe talked about transformational changes in the relationship that subsequently included a civil nuclear deal between the two countries signed in 2016.
Be it infrastructure, skill development, and maritime cooperation, Japan has become a consistent partner for India. It was in August 2000 when Japanese prime minister Yoshiro Mori and his Indian counterpart AB Vajpayee inked 'Global Partnership in the 21st Century’ setting the tone for a major uptick in the bilateral relationship. The path had become wider and brighter under Abe’s leadership.
In the optics-driven and personality-led world of diplomacy, Abe was the best Japanese prime minister India could have wished for. His personal equation with both Manmohan Singh and Narendra Modi would always stand out. It is another matter that the first Japanese prime minister to visit India was Abe’s maternal grandfather Nobusuke Kishi in 1957 who was accorded a public reception that Abe often fondly recalled.
Abe was the first ever Japanese prime minister to be chief guest at India’s Republic Day Parade in 2014. He had just taken over as chairman of Japan-India Association, yet another marker of his quest for bettering India-Japan ties.
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