India’s foreign policy would benefit enormously if Japan were to play a greater role in the geopolitics of Asia. India’s strategic situation would be shored up if Japan were to capitalize on its economic and technological prowess, along with its latent military strength, to balance against China.
Détente between India and China is unlikely to go anywhere because the logic of their rivalry is too strong. Temporary India-U.S. tensions — which are already on their way to resolution — do not alter the larger structural forces that shape Asian geopolitics. Japan, too, cannot alter the fact that its major geopolitical challenge is its contentious relationship with China. Recent events have demonstrated this, particularly China’s ballistic reaction to Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae’s November 2025 comment that a Chinese attack on Taiwan would draw in Japanese forces. China is clearly unnerved by the prospect of a militarily assertive Japan.
Both India and Japan would buttress each other’s position by virtue
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