India, China and Japan: The Future of Asian Power

On 12 October 2007, a conference was held in Paris on the theme “India 2025: Possible Scenarios, and Issues for France and Europe”. It was organized by the Institut des hautes études de défense nationale and the “Asia 21” group (Futuribles International). Among the ranges of questions considered were the geopolitical changes in India, which include the development of relations between that country and its two great Asian neighbours, China and Japan. Isabelle Saint-Mézard, who covered this issue in the “India 2025” conference, broadly restates here her analysis of the triangular relationship between India, China and Japan and of the prospective development of that relationship over the next 15-20 years.
After outlining the factors that make for increasing interdependence between these three countries (among them, openness to international trade, energy supply and security issues), she analyses the rapprochement between China and India that has been developing for some years and its potentially lasting character. She then studies relations between India and Japan, which are essentially economic and less developed than with China, but likely to strengthen, particularly at the political and geopolitical levels, most notably to counter their neighbour China, if that country were to assume too great an influence in Asia. As Isabelle Saint-Mézard stresses in conclusion, the relations between these three Asian giants will doubtless increase in complexity, including both competitive and cooperative aspects. Those relations will depend on each country’s desire to maintain the regional status quo, the positioning of China being particularly significant in this regard.