Over the past decade, India and Japan have built a relationship of strategic cooperation to promote collaboration on regional and global issues. An examination of the current situation indicates that their relations are a sum greater than its parts.
What is missing is an honest acknowledgement of the relationship's raison d'etre. Rather than relying on the notion of shared values, they should acknowledge the primacy of shared interests regarding China's rise.
Until recently, the two countries had very little interaction. During the Cold War, they were not on the "same side" of the global struggle, thereby effectively freezing bilateral relations until the early 1990s. India's 1998 nuclear tests brought the burgeoning bilateral relations to a sudden halt. Yet today, they enjoy broad cooperation in the economic, diplomatic, and security fields. What explains this cooperation?
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