India, Japan and Australia have begun discussions on launching a trilateral Supply Chain Resilience Initiative (SCRI) to create an alternative and reduce dependency on China.
According to reports, the initiative which was first proposed by Japan and is now taking shape and will soon be launched. The three countries are now working on fixing dates for the first meeting of their respective commerce and trade ministers by next week.
It can be assumed that the objective of the Japanese proposal is two-fold; one is to attract foreign direct investment to turn the Indo-Pacific into an ‘economic powerhouse’ and second to build a mutually complementary relationship between the partner countries.
The idea is also to throw open the prospects of the initiative to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) after India-Japan-Australia builds an understanding of the matter.
The purpose of the SCRI is to improve supply chain resilience across the Indo-Pacific. The countries will be to work out a plan to build on the existential supply chain network.
India and Japan already have an Indo-Japan Industrial Competitiveness Partnership that deals with locating Japanese firms in India.
The decision to become the part of the global supply chain, which can potentially serve as an alternative to China, has reportedly been taken at the highest levels of the Indian government. The development comes after PM Modi’s Independence Day speech in which he asserted that businesses have started viewing India as a possible ‘hub for supply chains’ and that the country should also ‘make for the world’.
