The end of the Cold War proved quite propitious for the bilateral relations since many converging factors which had remained dormant for years began to manifest rather strongly in the unfolding new regional environment. Bilateral relations started entering a new phase after 2000. India’s rapid economic progress following its adoption of economic reforms and liberalization was one major reason for Japan to sit up and realize what an economically strong India could mean to the peace of Asia as a whole. The wide support that the liberalization programme enjoyed on the domestic front and the accompanying high rate of annual growth of the economy convinced most Japanese leaders that India was firmly committed to free market economy. They saw many new opportunities for foreign direct investment in India which had now adopted an outward-looking economic strategy under which it assigned a key role to FDI as an important catalyst for national progress.

The signing of a declaration on security cooperation by India and Japan in October 2008 marked the culmination of a process that had started in 2000. The fact that Japan had signed such an agreement only with the US and Australia understandably gives it an additional point of importance. Very few would have expected such an important development to materialize so quickly because until about ten years ago, India hardly ever figured in any Japanese discourse on the emerging Asian security landscape.

But today it is difficult to think of any such security discussions in Japan without reference to India. There is a fundamental transformation in the Japanese assessment of India’s role in the shaping of new Asian security architecture. There has been a perceptible change in the nature of the bilateral partnership since the turn of the century. Rather than being centred on economic interactions. Indo-Japanese ties today cover a far wider spectrum of subjects. There is also a marked change in their mutual perception of each other’s national interests and foreign policy goals. Regional and global developments have brought them together on a platform where they address critical issues on which their national interests converge.

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