Posted on 11/09/2012 10:30:27 AM PST by James C. Bennett
Faced with a more militarily assertive China, Japan and India are banding together.
Two serious newspapers – the Times of India and the Asahi Shimbun, in separate reports, have emphasized the burgeoning ties between New Delhi and Tokyo prompted by mutual concern over an assertive China.
Japan is feeling the brunt of the assertiveness as Chinese ships - for over two weeks - have made forays to challenge Japanese sovereignty over the Senkaku Islands. The Chinese ships claim that they are operating in Chinese territorial waters.
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh are slated to announce the creation of a bilateral forum on security matters at their November 16 meeting. Noda will propose joint exercises in the Indian Ocean involving the navies of both countries.
Significantly the joint drills will not be limited to the area around Japan, but will also take place in the Indian Ocean, meaning that we have the embryo of a mutual defense pact. Under Japan's Constitution, the Japanese military is relegated to a purely defensive role. If it expands activities to the Indian Ocean, this opens up a broad interpretation of what constitutes self-defense.
Japanese officials briefed Indian and US officials on the island dispute last week. This was part of a trilateral forum between the three countries that has aroused Chinese suspicion.
In addition to strategic cooperation, the three countries want to offset Chinese economic dominance of Southeast Asia by connecting India with Burma and Thailand and then on to Vietnam - and in this manner, create an East-West corridor to balance China's North-South route.
(Excerpt) Read more at israelnationalnews.com ...
India has the People(Over 1 Billion)and NUKES and Japan has the Tech and the brains, could be interseting.
And US just got Obama and is now crashing and burning out of the race. Yes, things just got a little more interesting.
India has got a little more then just people and nukes.
I think it could be a smart political marriage between the two nations. Both have legitimate reasons to fear the Red Dragon.
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