From Visiting Sabarmati to Performing Ganga Aarti: How Padma Vibhushan Shinzo Abe Boosted India-Japan Ties

Former Japanese premier Shinzo Abe’s death by assassination at a political event on Friday has left leaders around the world shocked and his own prime minister Fumio Kishida “at a loss for words”. Abe’s tragic demise, however, is a resounding loss for India with Prime Minister Narendra Modi summing it up in a series of tweets. He described Japan’s longest ruling PM as “one of his dear friends”. India has declared a day of mourning on July 9 as a mark of respect for Abe, who was instrumental in strengthening India-Japan ties over his two stints as Japan premier in 2006-2007 and 2012-2020.

Abe was a great friend to India as described by foreign policy experts, one who made an intense effort to deepen strategic ties between the two countries and one of the first to see India as a major democratic Asian power to counter China’s rising threat. He is also credited with initiating the quadrilateral dialogue, or Quad as it is now called, seeing the potential in great democracies of the Indo-Pacific (from US to Japan and onto Australia and India) in countering China’s assertiveness in the region.

One of Japan’s most influential leaders in its post-war history, Abe was deeply invested in building a strong relationship with India. From his first visit to India during his 2006-2007 and multiple visits thereafter in 2014, 2015 and 2017, no other Japanese premier has made as many tours to India. Invited by then PM Manmohan Singh, he was the first Japanese dignitary to attend India’s Republic Day parade as chief guest in 2014. Back then, his visit was described as the pinnacle of India-Japan relations that had endured since 2000 when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was PM.

Highlighting India’s close ties with Japan over decades and his personal rapport with Abe, Prime Minister Modi said the fierce nationalist leader had left a “deep impression” on him.

FIRST VISIT TO INDIA IN 2006-07

Abe visited India for the first time in August 2007 during his first stint (2006-07), which was highlighted by his famous speech to Parliament called ‘Confluence of the Two Seas’. It laid the foundation of the Indo-Pacific and remains to date one of the pillars of India-Japan ties.

In 2006, too, he signed the ‘India-Japan Strategic and Global Partnership’ with then PM Manmohan Singh during its first annual summit. In 2007, he and Singh signed the ‘The Roadmap for New Dimensions to the Strategic and Global Partnership between India and Japan’ and on the ‘Enhancement of Cooperation on Environmental Protection and Energy Security’.

ABE’S SECOND STINT, FRIENDSHIP WITH MODI

During his second stint from 2012 to 2020, he made three trips to India in 2014, 2015 and 2017. These were the most made by any Japanese premier to India. It was a time Abe decided to deepen ties at a strategic level with India.

He shared a special bond with the country, and more so with PM Modi who took charge in May 2014, months after Abe visited India in January. He had met Modi once in 2007 and then again in 2012 when the latter visited Japan in the capacity of Gujarat CM.

Abe has called the PM his “most dependable and valuable friend”. In 2014, Modi visited Kyoto for the first time as the PM. Abe hosted a dinner for Modi while the two leaders visited the Toji Temple in Kyoto. In another special gesture and a mark of personal friendship, Abe hosted a special dinner for Modi in Brisbane during the G20 Summit in 2014.

Abe’s first visit to India after Modi took charge was a grand affair. The visit in 2015 was Abe’s second visit to India during his second stint as PM. He had already visited Manmohan Singh in 2014. Modi ensured that Abe experienced the true spirit of India as the two leaders attended the iconic Ganga Aarti in Varanasi’s Dashashwamedh Ghat. They offered prayers and performed the aarti at Modi’s constituency.

(Then Japanese premier Shinzo Abe and PM Narendra Modi perform Ganga Aarti at Varanasi in 2015. Image: Reuters)

In 2016, Modi boarded a bullet train from Tokyo to Kobe during another visit to Japan. They were on board the Shinkansen train.

In his last visit to India as premier in September 2017 for the 12th India Japan Annual Summit, Abe was received by Modi at Ahmedabad airport in a breach of protocol. Abe and his wife then joined Modi for an 8-km roadshow in an open jeep to pay tributes to Mahatma Gandhi at Sabarmati Ashram. They later visited the Sidi Saiyyed’s Mosque as well as Dandi Kuteer. This was followed by a historic moment as the two leaders laid the foundation stone for India’s first high-speed rail project between Ahmedabad and Mumbai, even as Modi expressed gratitude to Abe for technical and financial support for the project.

(Then Japanese premier Shinzo Abe and PM Narendra Modi pay tributes to Mahatma Gandhi at Sabarmati Ashram in 2017. Image: Reuters)

In 2018, Abe once again hosted Modi at the picturesque Yamanashi Prefecture. Not only this, he also hosted Modi at his personal home near Lake Kawaguchi in Yamanashi. Both leaders visited the FANUC Corporation in Japan, which is one of the largest makers of industrial robots in the world.

In 2019, the two met thrice in a span of four months — in Osaka (during G20 Summit), in Vladivostok (during the Eastern Economic Forum) and in Bangkok (on the sidelines of India-ASEAN and East Asia Summit).

When Abe finally stepped down in 2020 due to illness and poor public ratings, Modi tweeted to wish him a speedy recovery.

Earlier in May, Abe and Modi met for the last time on the sidelines of the Quad summit in Tokyo.

Modi was an admirer of Abe and his policies much before he became the PM even as Abe has called Modi an outstanding leader of his great country. When he became PM in 2014, Japan was the first foreign country he visited on his ever-expanding itinerary. Apart from visits, the two leaders upgraded India-Japan ties to ‘Special Strategic and Global Partnership’, collaborating on civilian nuclear energy to maritime security, bullet trains to quality infrastructure, Act East policy to Indo-Pacific strategy.

(Then Japanese premier Shizo Abe and wife Akie Abe with PM Narendra Modi during their visit to Sabarmati Ashram in 2017. Image: Reuters)

ABE’S LASTING LEGACY, HISTORICAL TIES WITH INDIA

As a mark of his statesmanship and enduring ties with India, the Narendra Modi-led central government bestowed on Abe India’s second highest civilian award — Padma Vibhushan — in 2021.

Abe’s maternal grandfather, too, shared close ties with India. Abe, in his Parliament speech in 2007, described how India’s first PM Jawaharlal Nehru had introduced his grandfather Nobusuke Kishi, the then Japanese premier, in New Delhi in 1957. Abe said his grandfather was deeply touched by Nehru’s gesture. According to an article available on the website of the ministry of external affairs, Nehru introduced Kishi at a public reception saying, “This is the Prime Minister of Japan, a country I hold in the greatest esteem.” Abe said in the aftermath of World War II, it was rare for a Japanese PM to be felicitated at a public rally and, that too, by a leader of Nehru’s stature.

‘STRONG INDIA IN THE BEST INTEREST OF JAPAN’ | ABE’S TOP INDIA QUOTES

• Standing ovation: In his rousing speech, ‘Confluence of the Two Seas’, at India’s Parliament in 2007, Abe said: “Today I have the great honour of addressing the highest organ of state power in this largest democracy in the world. I come before you on behalf of the citizens of another democracy that is equally representing Asia, to speak to you about my views on the future of Japan and India.”
• Turning point: The Parliament speech was a turning point in India-Japan ties where Abe said: “The Pacific and the Indian Oceans are now bringing about a dynamic coupling as seas of freedom and of prosperity. A ‘broader Asia’ that broke away geographical boundaries is now beginning to take on a distinct form. Our two countries have the ability — and the responsibility — to ensure that it broadens yet further and to nurture and enrich these seas to become seas of clearest transparency. This is the message I wish to deliver directly today to the one billion people of India. That is why I stand before you now in the Central Hall of the highest chamber, to speak with you, the people’s representatives of India.”
• India, a major democratic power: Abe was courted by both the UPA and NDA governments, and was a great advocate of India’s position as a major democratic power in the Asia. Abe pushed for stronger India-Japan relations ever since he returned as the Japan PM at the end of 2012. At an Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA) lecture in September 2011, Abe said: “A strong India is in the best interest of Japan, and a strong Japan is in the best interest of India.”
• Nehru connection: In the same speech, Abe also spoke about how his maternal grandfather, Nobusuke Kishi, was felicitated by then PM Jawaharlal Nehru in 1957. He said: “As a young boy seated on his knee, I would hear him telling me that Prime Minister Nehru introduced him to the biggest audience he had ever seen in his lifetime of a hundred thousand people. He told me that it was India that came forward before any other country to accept the ODA Japan wanted to extend as a proud member of the international community. For all that, he remained deeply thankful throughout his life.”
• Friend for life: In 2018, when Abe hosted Modi at his holiday home in the Yamanashi prefecture, he penned a letter about Japan’s ties with India and also called PM Modi his “most trusted and valuable friend”. “Immersed in the strong impression and thinking of my grandfather’s visit to India, I swore that I would remain a friend of India for life.”

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