Japan and India have ties going back centuries, when Buddhism spread from the land of its birth, India, to Japan. However, for much of the Cold War era, India and Japan stayed aloof from one another as they were in opposite camps. India was close to the erstwhile Soviet Union, while Japan became a key US ally. The end of the Cold War positioned these two nations on a trajectory that enabled their relations to grow from a global partnership to a strategic one. A recent development has been the Government of India’s allowance to Japan to invest in Northeast India, which has a strong strategic significance. This commentary highlights this significant move.
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