NEW DELHI, Aug 24 (IPS) - With Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s just-concluded maiden visit to India, New Delhi has taken one more step towards fashioning a new posture towards East Asia, seeking to expand its political influence in the region and strengthen economic ties with it. At the centre of this is India’s efforts to build a strategic relationship with Japan, which was launched during former Prime Minister Yushiro Mori’s visit to India in 2000. Then, the two governments announced a "Global Partnership between Japan and India in the 21st Century". Besides greater cooperation in the economic field, including information technology, they have been trying to expand bilateral exchanges in political-military areas. India and Japan, along with Germany and Brazil, made a coordinated but abortive bid in 2005 to acquire permanent seats on the United Nations Security Council. Abe, a self-confessed Indophile, was given the red carpet treatment when he landed in India on Tuesday for the three-day visit. He was invited to address a special session of Parliament -- a ceremonial privilege not extended even to U.S. President George W. Bush during his visit here last year. Abe called for the creation of an "arc of freedom and prosperity" along the outer rim of Eurasia. Ironically, Abe met his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh in what has been called "a summit between two injured or embattled Prime Ministers". Both Abe and Singh are facing stiff domestic political opposition. Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party recently lost its majority in Japan’s upper house of Parliament, and his defence minister had to resign last month because of his remarks about the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The bombing, he had said, "could not be helped". Singh’s ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) is embroiled in a serious tussle over the U.S.-India nuclear cooperation deal with the Communist Left, whose support is vital for its survival. The Left opposes the deal and demands the suspension of further talks on it at the International Atomic Energy Agency and the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group, which must approve it before it comes into effect. However, none of this prevented the two Prime Ministers from committing themselves to building a stronger "strategic partnership". Japan also agreed to invest in big-ticket infrastructure projects in several parts of India, including West Bengal. The U.S., India, Japan and Australia are trying to set up an important new initiative in the form of a "quadrilateral" grouping, termed by its critics as the core of "an Asian NATO". In May, their foreign ministers met on the sidelines of the ASEAN Regional Forum in Manila to discuss security issues in Asia. The same month, India participated in military exercises with the U.S. and Japan, not far from China’s eastern coast. The "quadrilateral" consultations and exercises attracted strong protests from China. Beijing fears that the U.S. is fashioning a "China containment" strategy involving India, Japan and Australia. China issued demarches (formal diplomatic communications) to each of the four states. To reassure China that India’s participation was not a sign of hostility to it, New Delhi also conducted a token one-day exercise with the Chinese Navy. That has not fully assured China. The four, along with Singapore, are now scheduled to hold large-scale but controversial naval exercises off India’s East Coast early next month. These will involve 20 warships, including two US aircraft carriers and a nuclear submarine, as well as Japanese destroyers. "It is undeniable that India and Japan both want to contain China’s growing influence in Asia through their emerging strategic partnership," says Lalima Verma, of the Centre for East Asian Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) here. "They are worried that Chinese power will remain ineffectively challenged unless they join hands." Undergirding the "partnership" are India’s growing strategic ambitions and its strategic alliance with the U.S. and Japan’s steady militarisation. India is being recruited by Washington as an anchor in the U.S.-dominated security architecture it plans for Asia. India has emerged as one of the world’s top three importers of armaments and is believed to be expanding its nuclear arsenal considerably. Japan has been steadily building up its offensive strategic capabilities. Last year, it reconstituted its defence agency into a full-fledged ministry. "There has been a generational shift in Japan’s political leadership in recent years," argues Brij Tankha, a Japanese studies scholar from Delhi University. "The new leaders no longer feel particularly embarrassed by Japan’s past militarist role. That is why Japanese prime ministers have been regularly visiting the Yasukuni shrine, which is a memorial to Japan’s war heroes." Abe has not visited the shrine since he became Prime Minister. But while in Kolkata, he made it a point to meet Prosanto Pal, the son of Judge Radhabinod Pal, the sole member of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East to dissent from the verdict in the Tokyo War Crimes Trial of 1946-48. During his India visit, Abe stopped short of committing himself to unconditionally supporting India’s bid to get its nuclear deal with the US approved in the Nuclear Suppliers’ Group. In response to Singh’s appeal for support, Abe said he understood the deal’s great importance in meeting India’s energy needs, but added that Japan would have to take a nuanced stand on the issue after studying the details as Japan is the world’s sole victim of nuclear weapons. However, Indian officials expect Japan not to obstruct approval for the deal in the NSG unless other member-states object to it. A highlight of Abe’s visit was Japan’s promise to invest in two large projects: a 90 billion dollar, 1,500 km-long ‘Industrial Corridor connecting the national capital with the western port city of Mumbai. The corridor will have nine investment regions, three ports and six airports; and will be serviced by a dedicated railway freight corridor between Delhi and the eastern port city of Kolkata. Japan has committed a little over three billion dollars for the first stage. Japan, India’s biggest aid donor, is also set to become a major industrial investor. "Japan is keen to expand its industrial presence through large corporations to match big South Korean investments, such as a 13 billion dollar steel project in Orissa, and the high profile LG and Samsung groups," says Verma. "That is why Abe came with 100 top corporate executives." Japan is also keen to triple its trade with India from the current level of 6.5 billion within three years. It is anxious to compete with China, which has a 20 billion dollar trade volume with India. "No less important," adds Verma, "is Japan’s interest in promoting educational and people-to-people exchanges." As many as 12 university vice-chancellors accompanied the Japanese Prime Minister. Some of these universities will set up joint programmes with the Indian Institutes of Technology and Institutes of Management, as well as institutions such as JNU and Delhi University. Japan and India have decided to hold a summit meeting every year and complete negotiations a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement by the end of 2007. India hopes to attract at least five billion dollars in Japanese investment over the next five years, or double the volume received over the past 15 years. However, the driving force in the emerging Japan-India relationship is more likely to be strategic and political rather than economic.