Japan and India will join forces in the information and communications sector to counter China’s growing influence in telecommunications and digital infrastructure, Japanese government officials said recently.
According to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun on November 29, citing Japanese officials, the two governments will support Japanese companies in introducing technologies such as 5G wireless networks and submarine fiber optic cables to India. In addition, Japan will also receive cooperation from India in the education of digital technology professionals.
The related cooperation between India and Japan will include projects worth tens of billions of yen (hundreds of millions of dollars). A memorandum of understanding to conclude this comprehensive agreement will be signed by Japan’s Minister of State for General Affairs Ryota Takeda and India’s Minister of Communications and Information Industry Ravi Shankar Prasad at an online conference in December. Preparations are said to be underway. No such MOU has ever been signed between Japanese and Indian cabinet ministers before.
The Indian government has taken strong retaliatory measures following the June border clashes between China and India, including banning the use of hundreds of Chinese apps such as TikTok, the international version of Jitterbug, in the country. Earlier, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Japanese Prime Minister Kan Yoshihide jointly announced on July 17 that the two countries have “in principle” reached a Reciprocal Access Agreement (RAA).
The agreement provides a legal framework that will allow Japanese and Australian military forces to visit each other’s countries and conduct training and joint operations. It will facilitate joint training and exercises, intelligence sharing, and defense industry cooperation between the two countries. It is the first agreement allowing a foreign military presence on Japanese soil since Japan signed the Status of U.S. Forces in Japan Agreement in 1960, and makes Australia the second country in the world, after the United States, to share a common defense with Japan.
In June, Morrison and Indian Prime Minister Modi also signed the “India-Australia Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Agreement” in a video conference. The two agreed to enhance military cooperation and exchanges between the two militaries, particularly through the Bilateral Logistics Support Agreement (MLSA), which grants reciprocal rights to reciprocal military bases.
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