India and the UK-Japan Dialogue

‘India and the UK-Japan Dialogue’ was the third in this year’s seminar series, ‘Changing World Views: International Challenges for the UK and Japan’ featuring contributions by Minister Wataru Nishigahiro, Envoy Extraordinary, Minister Plenipotentiary and Deputy Chief of Mission at the Embassy of Japan in London and Barry Gardiner MP, who founded and chaired the Labour Friends of India.

Summary

Nishigahiro was Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of Japan in India from 2001-2005, arriving immediately after 9/11 when the outbreak of an American war against Afghanistan and Iraq seemed imminent.

Echoing the Chair, Dr Ashok Kumar MP, Nishigahiro traced the exchange between Japan and India back to the introduction of Buddhism to Japan in the sixth century before going on to talk about Japan’s positive relations with India post independence in 1947 and following Prime Minister Kishi’s visit in 1957. Nishigahiro pointed out that Japan began providing loans to India in 1958, a case of the first ever yen loan having been extended by the Japanese government. He went on to talk about fluctuating Indo-Japanese relations over the decades from the 1970s to 1991, when India began embarking on economic reform, entering into the American orbit and, by extension, Japan’s. Relations with Japan suffered a setback with the testing of an Indian nuclear device in 1998 and once again at the time of 9/11 but have become closer in recent years with annual reciprocal prime ministerial visits since Prime Minister Koizumi’s visit to Delhi in 2005 and financial assistance to help with the development of the Delhi Metro.

Barry Gardiner, in contrast to Nishigahiro, focused on environmental concerns and the fact that no single solution to global warming – whether ‘absolute’ emission cuts or ‘sectoral’ targets appears practicable.

Japan, said Gardiner, as one of the world’s most energy-efficient countries, opposes absolute emission cuts, favouring matching global sectoral targets, ( in the production of steel and cement, for example). Sectoral cuts would place the onus on industries to match Japan’s level of efficiency, putting a burden on countries like India, whose cement industry, for instance, is far more polluting than the Japanese. The UK’s approach lies somewhere in between; viewing the sectoral approach as sensible but only if in tandem with a strong commitment by developed nations to technology transfers.

With the breakdown of our ecosystem, climate regulation, pollination and provisional services, Gardiner sees the upcoming Copenhagen Climate Conference in December 2009 – aiming to initiate a new climate protocol before the expiry of the Kyoto Protocol in 2012 – and, more crucially, the 10th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in Nagoya in 2010 as absolutely critical.

The questions, comments and answers following the presentations were wide-spanning and included discussions on what the UK can learn from Indian parliamentary democracy, reasons for the slowness of Japanese companies to invest in India, the lack of Japanese involvement and investment in India when compared with investment in China and the success of Narendra Modi in attracting Japanese investment in Gujarat.

Professor David Cope, Director of the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology, gave the vote of thanks to the speakers, commenting on Nishigahiro’s speech; Gardiner’s masterful presentation on the importance of biodiversity and Kumar’s highly effective chairing of the seminar.

About the contributors