Beijing: Playing down the significance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi visiting Japan ahead of Chinese President's trip to India, media here said China need not read too much into the visit as New Delhi will keep its independent diplomatic policy and avoid hedging against Beijing.
"Despite the fast development of Japan-India relations since the beginning of the 21st century, India will keep an independent diplomatic policy and not involve itself in China-Japan contentions," an article in the state-run Global Times said.
Modi's five-day visit to Japan beginning on August 30 has evoked considerable interest in China as it is taking place ahead of President Xi Jinping's visit to New Delhi.
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"It is not necessary for us to read too much into Modi's Japan visit," the daily, known for its usually nationalistic views, said, downplaying the significance of Modi's visit to Tokyo.
Beijing, which regards Tokyo as its arch rival would like to see how India-Japan ties shape up. "Modi is a pro-Japanese Indian politician and a tough nationalist, and therefore some observers hold that Tokyo and New Delhi will gradually embrace cooperation to hedge against Beijing after the BJP took power," the Communist Party-run daily said.
It said that the Indian Prime Minister mainly aims to seek economic assistance from Japan through this trip.
"Amid a rather sluggish economy these years, Modi, who is apt at boosting economic development, has been trying to promote economic reform by attracting foreign capital since taking office. There is no wonder that Japan, the biggest official development assistance (ODA) provider to India, has become a key focus," it said.
Tokyo has provided an ODA fund worth more than USD 36 billion to India for the latter's infrastructure construction over the past few years.
Japan has edges in capital and technology, while India is an appealing market with rich human resources, making the two highly complementary with each other, it said.
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The daily claimed that in the meeting Abe "will suggest helping construct India's offshore airports to ensure the navigation safety of its ships, in an obvious attempt to prevent Chinese ships from passing there."
Against the backdrop of Washington's "pivot to Asia", the US, Japan and India have held several joint maritime military exercises, and launched regular meetings to discuss Asia-Pacific status and maritime security, it said.
On India-China relations, it said, "Despite the fact the simmering border dispute is still up in the air, the two neighbours have achieved agreement on resolving the conundrum through peaceful negotiations."
The daily said that in contrast to Tokyo, which is attempting to change the status quo in the region under "Washington's constraints", India has its real interests in maintaining the present circumstances and ramping up economic development in a stable international environment.
