Same Game, Slightly Different Players

Japan, Anglosphere member-in-waiting since the Meiji Restoration explicitly copied the British Empire, is forging stronger ties with the old Raj:

Japan on Wednesday offered a record 4.5 billion dollars in loans to India to build a major railway as the Asian powers agreed to step up both economic and military ties.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Japanese counterpart Taro Aso hastened to deny that the cooperation was aimed at countering China, where both leaders head Thursday for a summit of Asian and European leaders.

Under the agreement signed in Tokyo, Japan will provide an initial 450 billion yen (4.5 billion dollars) in low-interest loans to build the freight railway between New Delhi and Mumbai.

With China’s new Tibet railway giving them the ability to move and supply ever-larger numbers of soldiers on the Indian border, don’t believe for a second that Japan and India don’t have any aim of eventually countering Beijing.