ISAS Insights

The Prime Ministers of India and Japan have now signed a Memorandum confirming an iconic agreement on civil nuclear cooperation, leaving for the final stretch a legal scrubbing and ratification of the accord by both countries. They have also strengthened their "Special Strategic and Global Partnership" by enlarging the scope of their economic cooperation, and exploring co-development and co-production in the defence sector. Far from drawing any new battle-lines in the Indo-Pacific region, the latest India-Japan annual summit has reinforced the contours of the existing diplomatic landscape and sent out an implicitly reassuring message to China.