Fernandes to initiate first-ever defence dialogue with Japan

By C. Raja Mohan

NEW DELHI, JAN. 7. The Defence Minister, Mr. George Fernandes, is travelling to Tokyo on Sunday to lay the basis for a new dialogue on defence and security issues with Japan. He will be the first Indian Defence Minister ever to officially visit Japan, and is expected to prepare the ground for greater interaction between the armed forces of the two countries and initiate systematic bilateral consultations on Asian security.

The Defence Minister has had a long-pending invitation from Tokyo. But the trip had to wait until the unfreezing of the post- Pokhran bilateral relations between the two countries. Indo- Japanese ties went into a deep chill after Japan reacted bitterly to India's nuclear tests in May 1998 and cut off all new economic assistance.

Mr. Fernandes' visit follows the return of civility to bilateral relations since the External Affairs Minister, Mr. Jaswant Singh, travelled to Japan recently. During Mr. Singh's visit, both the sides had agreed to resume the broad bilateral exchanges even as dfferences on the nuclear question remain. The Japanese Defence Minister, Mr. Tsutomu Kawara, will play host to Mr. Fernandes during his five-day visit to Japan. Mr. Fernandes will interact with senior officials of the Ministries of Defence and Foreign Affairs, the Japanese Self Defence Forces, and senior political leaders.

Although India and Japan are two of the leading democracies in Asia and have had no direct clash of national interest, they have had little interaction on defence and security matters till now. As they found themselves on the opposite sides during the four- decade long Cold War, they had little to discuss on security issues.

After the end of the Cold War at the turn of the 1990s, the defence establishments in New Delhi and Tokyo began to feel each other out, if only tentatively. Since the mid-1990s, officials of the Japanese Defence Agency began to visit India, and the Indian Naval and Air chiefs travelled to Japan.

On the eve of Pokharan-II, India and Japan were all set to begin a security dialogue at the Defence Secretary level. But they fell out over the nuclear non-proliferation issue, and Tokyo suspended all defence contacts.

Mr. Fernandes will now resume that dialogue at the political level. He will be accompanied by senior officials from the military and the Ministry of External Affairs. He is expected to have intensive exchange of views on the security and threat perceptions of the two nations.

The discussions are likely to cover the regional security environment and the prospects for greater interaction between the two military forces.

The two sides are also likely to discuss the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). Tokyo is impressed by the efforts over the last few weeks by the Indian Government to build the broadest possible consensus on signing the CTBT.

Japan is no longer insisting that India ratify the treaty unilaterally, and is hoping that an early Indian signature would facilitate the lifting of all economic sanctions against India, and the renewal of broad-based cooperation between the two countries.

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