Rising sun 2.0: As Japan shrugs off its pacifist shackles, India could make significant gains

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Japan has decided to ease restrictions on its sale of weapons to other countries, although this would be limited to the 17 with which it has defence tie-ups. As India is part of the four-nation Quad—with Japan, the US and Australia as other members—Tokyo’s move opens up a possibility worth close consideration by New Delhi. We could diversify our set of high-tech arms suppliers to include a non-hegemonic power with which we have had good relations for eight decades.

This is heartening in itself. That Japan is slowly giving up the pacifist stance it adopted after World War II could work out quite well for us too. In a world increasingly cleaved apart by geo-rivalry between the US and China, another power centre could reduce bipolarity and make space for other voices of influence.

Given how the US has been disposed towards its allies lately, Tokyo’s ties with Washington may matter less as we go along, even as it remains at odds with Beijing. For a country like India that has long cherished strategic autonomy based on a position of global neutrality, a multipolar world offers greater scope for manoeuvre: we can work with power blocs without being drawn into any bloc that might burden us with a need to fight for causes that are not ours. Old certainties of power distribution have been coming apart.

The US-led Nato is the West’s foremost military alliance. While it will probably not be disbanded formally, it has been battered so hard by the current White House that it may never recover. The upshot is likely to be a defence posture taken by Europe on its own, with France and the UK offering nuclear armoury.