China, shadow of Doklam hang over India-Japan strategic ties

Even as the prime ministers of India and Japan emphasised the significance of defence and security cooperation and agreed to enhance the strategic partnership, China on Thursday said it hoped relations between those two countries would evolve into a partnership for peace rather than for forming an alliance.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said, "We advocate that regional countries should stand for dialogue without confrontation and work for partnership instead of alliance." She, however, declined to comment on specific issue like Japan's plans to sell US-2 amphibious aircraft to India, the first such move by Tokyo to sell defence equipment to any country.

The bilateral talks between the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his visiting Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe in Ahmedabad had telltale imprints of recent Doklam stand-off.

Sources said both sides developed a common understanding amid Beijing's unilateral moves to change the status quo along land and sea boundaries, and called for safeguarding and strengthening a rules-based order.

To that end, India and Japan inked 15 agreements to further their strategic partnership and agreed to strengthen cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region.

They also agreed to enhance defence and security cooperation and dialogues, including the MALABAR and other joint exercises, defence equipment and technology cooperation in such areas as surveillance and unmanned system technologies, among others.