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RCEP cannot achieve its full potential without India: Japan
New Delhi: Japan believes the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) trade pact can achieve its full potential only with the participation of India in
New Delhi: Japan believes the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) trade pact can achieve its full potential only with the participation of India in view of its status as a major power in the Indo-Pacific, the Japanese foreign minister said on Monday.
India opted out of RCEP, whose other participants are the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and the grouping’s FTA partners, Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea, last month, saying the agreement doesn’t satisfactorily address New Delhi’s concerns.
Speaking on Japan’s foreign policy at the Tokyo Global Dialogue organised by the Japan Institute of International Affairs, foreign minister Toshimitsu Motegi said his country is “making diplomatic efforts to realise RCEP with the participation of all 16 countries, including India”.
Motegi, who was in India with defence minister Taro Kono over the weekend for the first 2+2 ministerial dialogue between the two countries, said: “Whether we can keep India in RCEP, we cannot yet tell for certain at this moment. Yet, what is driving our efforts is Japan’s firm conviction that the framework of the RCEP can truly boost the region’s economic potential only with the participation of India, which is the world’s most populous democratic country and a major strategic player connecting the Asia-Pacific and the Indian Ocean.”
RCEP figured when Motegi and Kono met Prime Minister Narenda Modi on Saturday, with the Indian side reiterating its concerns about the trade pact in its current form.
The 15 other countries participating in RCEP expect to sign the pact in early 2020. A statement issued after the meeting of leaders of RCEP countries in Bangkok on November 4 had acknowledged India’s outstanding issues that remained unresolved.
“All RCEP participating countries will work together to resolve these outstanding issues in a mutually satisfactory way. India’s final decision will depend on satisfactory resolution of these issues,” the statement said.
Japan foreign ministry spokesperson Atsushi Kaifu told reporters here on Sunday that Tokyo is working with the other RCEP countries to address New Delhi’s concerns.
A majority of the members of Asean, Japan and South Korea are keen to have India within RCEP to act as a balance against China. However, India was apprehensive about inadequate safeguards for rules of origin under RCEP and the possibility of cheap Chinese goods flooding its markets.
Promoting rule of law, freedom of navigation and free trade is one of the three pillars of Japan’s Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy. The strategy identifies India, Australia and the US as partners for achieving this goal.
Motegi, who spoke on the theme “Is it possible to build an international order based on free, fair and transparent rules?”, hinted at the need for greater cooperation with countries such as India against the backdrop of a changing world order.
At a time when “existing great powers and emerging powers are competing for influence”, Japan’s foreign policy must ensure that “claims must not be asserted by force”.
“India’s pullout from RCEP can be understood as it became necessary to hold out against the possibility of massive influx of cheap goods from better positioned state-controlled economies like China,” said Nilanjan Bose of ORF.
