A strategic and global partnership between India and Japan largely bodes well for US interests in Asia and beyond. US support and encouragement of this relationship is predicated on the assessment that the optimal strategy for maintaining order and stability in Asia, as the region assumes the mantle of the new centre of gravity in the international order, would be to support the creation of strong democratic centre of power and enhance cooperation among them, enabling them to take the lead in solving regional and global problems in the process.

Trilateral cooperation among the US, India and Japan therefore becomes immensely useful for the United States for various reasons. First, it would allow these countries, which share common values such as democracy and rule of law and interests such as an open and free Asia, not to be dominated by a single power, to come together to help formulate a vision and a strategy for the future of the continent.

Second, trilateral cooperation can also serve to demonstrate that US strategy in Asia is best served by a combination of formal and informal alliances that come together to serve the larger US interests in Asia. Third, US-India-Japan cooperation, with the possible addition of Australia, could create a core arrangement that could then evolve into a larger security architecture in Asia.

It should be noted, however, that this trilateral relationship must not be used as a device to contain China; rather, such a partnership should seek, by way of shaping the strategic environment in appropriate ways, to induce China to evolve as a constructive, rather than revisionist, power in Asia.

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The India-Japan partnership in Asia and the world also could provide comfort to a United States that is feeling marginalized by virtue of being denied membership in the East Asian Summit, among other Asia-led initiatives. Strategic partnerships with both countries, in addition to a strong partnership between them, will allow the US to maintain an active strategic presence in Asia, even if it is formally excluded from certain institutions and initiatives.

That said, India, or even Japan, will not serve as the proxy of the US. However, a partnership between the democratic states in Asia will ensure that it remains open and free, politically and economically, that will in turn bring the benefit of a protected commons that includes safety of sea lanes, and a secure and reliable access to energy sources. Moreover, it will allow Asian countries to work together against the threats of terrorism, religious extremism, and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

India and Japan today share a clear congruence of interests due to systemic and structural changes in the international system in recent years, in addition to fundamentally sound reasons for a partnership in the economic, political and military arenas, amid larger strategic considerations.

Firm determination to give the relationship a concrete form exists at the highest political level on both sides and, as a result, both countries have worked hard over the past few years to establish a solid foundation for building the relationship into a truly strategic partnership.

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India will undoubtedly continue to feature prominently in Japan’s global and regional strategy, while Japan will most likely become a key hinge of India’s “Look East” policy and its efforts to become an integral part of regional economic, political and strategic discourse. Asian regional institutions and even Asia itself, which count India as a key member state, will look very different from ones that exclude it.

While certain hurdles exist, they are unlikely to derail the current path of the relationship. China will warily watch the India-Japan relationship, much as it remains wary of the evolving US-India strategic partnership, but if India and Japan tread carefully, Chinese considerations should not affect their relationship.

At the same time, India, Japan, the US and Australia should not seek to enter a formal alliance; rather, a quadrilateral security dialogue is the best mechanism to promote cooperation without ruffling feathers in China. Most important, the India-Japan relationship can become a key driving force in the emergence of new security architecture in Asia based on the protection of democratic values and market principles.