Nihar Kulkarni asked: Do India-Japan cooperate in joint projects in countries such as Bangladesh, Myanmar or Sri Lanka?

Arnab Dasgupta replies: Yes, they do. Bangladesh is currently the fulcrum of India-Japan cooperation in third countries. This cooperation was given a fillip by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s declaration of a ‘Bay of Bengal-Northeast India industrial value chain concept’ during his speech on a new Indo-Pacific strategy in March 2023.

As of now, the lion’s share of projects currently being funded in Bangladesh relate to connectivity projects, with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)-funded Matarbari port forming the locus of a network of roads and railways that will extend between northeast Indian states and Bangladesh. It is expected that this network will encourage Indian, Bangladeshi and Japanese companies to relocate to industrial townships sited around the new highways and railheads.

Eventually, the value chain is expected to lead to better connectivity with the Southeast Asian region as well by extending Northeast India’s reach to countries as far away as Thailand and Vietnam. In 2023, JICA and India’s Exim Bank signed a MoU on providing co-financing to Bangladesh for the Mirsharai Steel Plant Development Project in Chattogram District, which will be used to set up an environmentally friendly steel plant there.

Instability in Myanmar presents difficulties for India-Japan cooperation in that country. A critical obstacle has been the difference between the two countries on dealing with the military regime in Naypyitaw. While India has shown pragmatism in maintaining relations with the current regime, Japan has followed the lead of the United States in sanctioning Myanmar and halting all developmental aid. The ongoing civil war has complicated matters further.

India-Japan collaboration in Sri Lanka has been hampered to a large extent by the political instability there. Successive administrations in Colombo have swung from downplaying relations with India in favour of China to rapprochement with India. The cancellation of the MoU on the development of the East Container Terminal in Colombo in 2021, and its subsequent partial grant to a Chinese company, is a prominent example. However, the current administration under President Ranil Wickramsinghe has been open to the idea of Japan-India collaboration. It has actively courted the two countries’ assistance in helping it overcome its debt crisis by investing in new infrastructure projects such as the Trincomalee container port and renewable energy production facilities.

Views expressed are of the expert and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Manohar Parrikar IDSA or the Government of India.