Counterattack China- India And Japan Come Together To Strengthen Their 5G Link As Quad Members Unite For Technological Dominance

India and Japan have finalized an ambitious agreement that provides for cooperation in 5G technology, artificial intelligence, and a ray of other critical areas. In an attempt to further boost partnership between India and Japan, the two counties have decided to develop 5G and 5G plus technologies with the help of other quad members of the US and Australia. Two strategic partners have vowed to future broad base their ties including in the Indo Pacific region. The cooperation of India and Japan in 5G technology comes with a backdrop of great reluctance by significant countries globally to allow Chinese telecommunication giant Huawei to rule out 5G services in their territories. 5G is the next-generation cellular technology with download speeds that started to be 100 times faster than the current 4G LTE network. 5G will power the “Internet of Things” including telemedicine and autonomous vehicles. Countries with faster 5G adoption will have a distinct technology and security related edge over others. 

This was something that was agreed upon during the visit of Dr. S.J. Shankar. Remember he was on a two-day visit to Japan which ended today. Earlier today he met with Japanese counterpart, the new Japanese foreign minister who is celebrating his birthday as well. Talking about the key takeaways was that the meeting was focusing on the free end Indo-Pacific, but both sides agreed on a cybersecurity agreement. The text of which emphasis on 5G, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things. This is something that is a top focus priority of many countries amidst growing concern regarding the Chinese companies involved in espionage. There was also talk about supply chain resilience which we need to remember happened last month when Japan, India, and Australia come together for a supply chain agreement. The Indian prime minister has talked with his Denmark counterpart in a virtual summit last month and has received a good response to it. So, there were multiple things involved in this meeting but we need to remember that India and Japan’s relationship is special. This is a relationship that focuses on the development of cooperation especially when it comes to very aggressive china, we know that the big focus now is on the virtual summit that is expected to take place very soon. With the new leadership took over in Japan recently, we can expect a virtual summit between the Indian prime minister Narendra Modi and the new Japanese prime minister who has taken over. 

This is a significant move given the fact that globally there has been a backlash against Chinese companies especially Huawei. We know that counties like the United States, the United Kingdom have taken a strong stance. India is yet to take a stance on allowing the Chinese company but it doesn’t look that there will be a favorable decision given the fact that tensions have been rising between new Delhi and Beijing amidst the Line of actual controls standoff which started earlier this year. There is no solution inside and there have been a number of the talks which have been taking place but the Chinese are not eager to move away. It is going to be a long winter so India is taking action on the various front, especially when it comes to investment coming from China.

The US has banned Huawei over national security concerns. Other countries have raised a red flag about the company’s links with the Chinese government. India, like other nations, suspects the companies of allowing the Chinese authorities to access the user data. Such an arrangement allows Beijing to launch cyberattacks and sabotage the national security of others including India. The Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to the newly appointed Japanese Prime Minister on Friday and decided to take the bilateral specific strategic and global partnership to a new level. The minister of external affairs said that the two leaders focused on free open and inclusive Indo-Pacific region with India and Japan agreeing to closely cooperate and develop the 5G and advanced technologies with the US and Australia ramping up technological support and might be taking the help of Israel if possible. There has been a discussion within the government and out, 5G policy will take the final show in the coming days added the ministry of external affairs. 

This is a huge update that has come our way was the fact that India and Japan have actually come out and made a statement saying that they will be now collaborating over 5G and 5G technologies. We have to remember that China has been trying to push Huawei into every country possible. China, of course, is facing a huge setback with the US leading campaign against Huawei 5G technologies. It has had ripple effects in Europe as well in several other countries that china has had tensions with over the past few months. Amidst all of that, we have seen china go ahead and push this technology in the middle east and also several African countries that have opened their doors to China’s 5G technology. Chinas policy for a very long time has been pushing its 5G technologies into low-income countries. This has been their tact from the start, like showing diplomacy in vaccines, diplomacy in 5G but given this sort of an attempt by China to go ahead and give it’s to all these countries while it is a big statement coming out of India and Japan that they will be working with the help of US and Australia on 5G and 5G plus technologies.

We don’t really know what are the specific details of this particular statement that has come out or what will be the specifics of this particular deal yet, but it’s a huge statement nevertheless because India and Japan aid them closing their ties and coming closer for a single cause for a particular region are of always going to be a big threat to China and might keep China in check. The fact that quad members are actually going to be taking up China on something as big as 5G technology is going to be a game-changer in the days to come in this century. We are yet to see what’s going to come out of the quad members’ meeting which is set to take place next month in Tokyo amidst this feeling of Chinese aggression in the Indo-Pacific. The Quad had now stepped up to its cooperation, they have been participating in the military exercise, India and Japan are conducting naval exercises, etc, all of that is going on but, on the side, the quad is expected to announce the development of 5G technology and that going to be an even more devastating setback for china. Ultimately, at the end of the day, it will all boil down to who is going to give cleaner technology to the countries that are involved because many countries in the past have faced repercussions of believing in China and having faith in China. Even if this is an initial analysis of the statement that has come out of the things the Quad will have to watch out for but nevertheless, this is a major development that has taken place and shows that there a common cause among Quad counties.