Changing Asia

SHANGHAI (AFP) - China, India and Japan will be the key motors of the Asian economy in 2007, with a potential slowdown in the United States expected to have a minimal impact on Chinese growth, S and P said.link

The importance of the three Asian giants has increased with the diminished US prestige after the Iraq war. What was meant to demonstrate an awesome military and limitless willpower, turned out to mark the limits of American influence instead. Nevertheless, for all three countries, the bilateral relationship with the US is more important than with either of the other two......Historical and linguistic ties to the West, import-substitution policies and protectionism, and political policies of close relations with Moscow kept India at a distance from China and Japan. The end of the Cold War dissipated the interest between Delhi and Moscow, threatened to leave India isolated and spurred it to seek better relations with China.

Japan has had its own share of troubles with China, especially bitter memories of Japanese atrocities during World War II. Many Japanese complain that Beijing keeps the issues alive to mobilise nationalist sentiment to hide the bankruptcy of communist ideology as the glue that held China together, and to extract more financial concessions from Tokyo.

India and Japan have neither the range of difficulties, nor potential for cooperation on the same sets of issues. Some of the problem areas between China and India are potential assets in Indo-Japanese relations--democratic governance, for example. The shared interests in permanent membership of the UN Security Council was converted into a common campaign that came close to fruition last year. Both would add value to the Security Council.Ramesh Thakur
Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Deepening ties between the two biggest democracies in Asia is part of Abe's efforts to chart a new direction for Japan's foreign policy, one less consumed with the U.S. and more embracing of Asia — albeit selectively.......Japan needs India more than India needs Japan time

India's Singh Woos Japanese Funds to Counter ChinaDecember 13, 2006 07

"In the evolving regional and international environment, India and Japan are increasingly finding that their long-term political, economic and strategic interests are converging,"Telugu Portal)

update

TOKYO (AFP) - Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has called for an "arc of prosperity" with fellow democracy Japan but pressed Asia's largest economy to invest more and support nuclear cooperationby Shaun Tandon
Thu Dec 14, 11:08

Okay, then Japan tell India Nuclear technology and India tell Japan experimental details of Nuclear weapon so that Japan may not have to do the tests. How about that?