Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's landslide win in national elections will help cement the Japan-India relationship as Asia's fastest growing and facilitate a military logistics pact to allow access to each other's bases. The Japan-India entente is a central pillar of U.S. President Donald Trump's strategy for a "free and open Indo-Pacific," a concept authored by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Modi indeed mirrors Abe's soft nationalism, market-oriented economics and geopolitical goal to create a web of interlocking strategic partnerships among like-minded Asian countries. Modi's election triumph represents a fresh mandate for him to reinvent India as a more secure, confident and competitive country, and forge closer ties with natural allies such as Japan.
Faced with a choice between a stable, firm government and a possible retreat to political drift, voters in the world's largest democracy have returned Modi to power with a thumping majority. His big win has averted a nightmare scenario for Indian democracy — an indecisive election verdict fostering political paralysis.
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