The Hindu : New Delhi News : ‘Premature to talk of U.S.-led grouping’

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Aug 22, 2007
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New Delhi

‘Premature to talk of U.S.-led grouping’

Sandeep Dikshit

Closer ties with Japan would not antagonise China: Menon

Discussions between Japan, India to concentrate on improving economic relations
To review discussions on Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement

NEW DELHI: India has played down suggestions of a “quadrilateral grouping” between U.S., India, Australia and Japan. It said the ‘quadrilateral meeting’ in Manila this year which will be followed by the biggest naval exercise in the Bay of Bengal early next month involving the ‘quadrilateral’ besides Singapore should be seen as one among several dialogue forums that exist in Asia today. Speaking to newspersons on the eve of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit, Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon told newsmen, “I don’t think the idea [of a quadrilateral grouping] has come to the stage where we can give definitive answers. It is like the several dialogue forums that exist today such as the Asian Regional Forum, bilateral security and defence dialogues. We also do [military] exercises with several countries including China.”

“This was an idea that Japan had suggested but not got to the stage where one has to take a clear view. It is one of the many ideas.” He also discounted suggestions that closer ties with Japan would antagonise China. “I don’t think our relationship with Japan is at the cost of China because if you look around, all the major powers of the world cooperate with one another as we work ourselves to greater prosperity. And it seems to be working. The risks come when you start seeing it as a zero sum game and it isn’t, fortunately.”Though discussions on the civil nuclear relationship will occupy media attention, Mr. Menon devoted just three sentences to it and excused himself from making further observations as the issue was now in a higher realm. “I don’t think we had asked them for support for the nuclear deal. We will naturally discuss the international framework for civil nuclear cooperation and how it should be changed. Certainly we will look forward to discussing that issue.”

During the visit, the focus would be on furthering strategic partnership by holding discussions on a wide range of issues including economic and trade, defence and security and reviewing the common strategy of reforming the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). Mr. Abe would be meeting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at a time when both sides are moving into “actualising and realising in practice the strategic and global partnership that we have declared.”

The bulk of the bilateral discussions would concentrate on improving the economic relationship and both sides would review the discussions on the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CEPA), expected to give a fillip to trade ties. Both sides are engaged on several mega projects with Mr. Menon pointing out that some of the projects are so big that “five years back we would have not had the nerve to talk about them.”

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