New Delhi: Even as Japan Friday lodged a strong protest with China over two Chinese coastguard ships intruding into its territorial waters, Japanese Ambassador here Satoshi Suzuki expressed support to India amid the ongoing border tussle in Ladakh with the northern neighbour in a reflection of the strong strategic partnership between New Delhi and Tokyo.
In a virtual discussion on “India-Japan relations in the post-COVID era” organised by the Vivekananda Foundation think tank here, Suzuki told Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla that Tokyo strongly opposes any attempt to change the status quo along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China in Ladakh.
“Had a good talk with FS Shringla,” Suzuki stated on Twitter following the discussion.
“Appreciated his briefing on the situation along LAC, including GOI’s (Government of India’s) policy to pursue peaceful resolution. Japan also hopes for peaceful resolution through dialogues. Japan opposes any unilateral attempts to change the status quo.”
Last month, 20 Indian Army personnel were killed in a bloody physical conflict with Chinese troops at Galwan Valley in the Ladakh region. Following this, New Delhi and Beijing have been engaging in diplomatic and military-level talks to de-escalate the situation.
Suzuki’s comments came after Japan, earlier Friday, lodged a strong protest with China over its coastguard vessels intruding into waters near the disputed Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea.
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According to reports, two Chinese ships were seen entering the waters near the Senkaku Islands – called Diayou Islands by Beijing – Thursday evening and approaching a Japanese shipping vessel.
At a press conference in Tokyo Friday, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said that China has been urged to stop its ships from approaching the Japanese fishing vessel and leave the waters around the Senkaku Islands immediately.
"We will continue to deal with the matter calmly and resolutely,” Suga said.
This was the first time that Chinese ships entered Japanese territorial waters since June 22. Prior to that, Beijing sent its ships to those waters for 80 consecutive days. Though both China and Japan lay claim to the Senkakus, Tokyo had put these islands under its administrative control since 2012. It’s an archipelago comprising five uninhabited islands and three barren rocks, ranging in size from 800 sq m to 4.32 sq km.
China’s expansionist policies in the region have come under increasing opposition from its neighbours in recent times.
Speaking to ETV Bharat, K.V. Kesavan, Distinguished Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation think tank and a leading Indian scholar in the field of Japanese studies, said that Suzuki’s remarks Friday were reflective of the fact that India and Japan are close strategic partners in the region.
“We (India and Japan) share common concerns regarding China not only bilaterally but otherwise also,” Kesavan said.
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He recalled that then Japanese Ambassador Kenji Hiramatsu had also come out with a similar statement of support for India when Indian and Chinese troops were engaged in a tense 73-day faceoff in 2017 at Doklam in the India-Bhutan-China international trijunction.
“It was a clear expression of our partnership,” Kesavan said. “We are also sympathetic to what is happening to Japan in the East China Sea.”
The India-Japan relationship was elevated to that of a “Special Strategic and Global Partnership” during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the east Asian nation in 2014.
Kesavan said that apart from bilaterally, both New Delhi and Tokyo share concerns about the need for maintaining stability and security in the Indo-Pacific, a region that stretches from the east coast of Japan to the east coast of Africa.
“We (India and Japan) have called for maintaining territorial sovereignty in the region and no country should use force to solve territorial disputes,” Kesavan said. “We believe in mutual discussion. We believe in freedom of navigation in the sea lanes.”
In this connection, he also cited China’s belligerence in the South China Sea region as another example.
China is locked in disputes over the Spratly and Paracel groups of islands in the South China Sea with other countries of the region.
While the other claimants over the Spratly islands are Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam, the Paracel islands are also claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan.
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In 2016, the Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration ruled that China violated the Philippines' rights in the South China Sea, one of the busiest commercial shipping routes in the world.
The court accused China of interfering with the Philippines' fishing and petroleum exploration, building artificial islands in the waters and failing to prevent Chinese fishermen from fishing in the zone.
Yet again, last month, Vietnam and the Philippines raised concerns over China’s repeated violations of maritime laws in the South China Sea.
“While the entire world is stretched thin in the fight against the (Covid-19) pandemic, irresponsible acts in violation of international law are still taking place, affecting the security and stability in certain regions, including our region,” Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Phuan Phuc was quoted as saying at a virtual meeting of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) leaders.
Ambassador Suzuki’s remarks also assume significance as India and Japan, along with the US and Japan, are part of a quad that seeks to work for peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific. Observers see this as strategically important given Beijing’s growing footprint in the region.
Stating that China should abide by the UN Convention for the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), Kesavan further questioned how China could lay claim over the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea.
“China is in violation of all norms,” he said. “We believe China should abide by the rules. That is what China is doing (violating rules) in Ladakh and that is why Japan is standing by us. That is what they (Japan) did during the Doklam standoff and that is what they are doing now.”
