For more about the East-West Center, see http://www.eastwestcenter.org/Japan-India relations have been improving rapidly since 2005 when the Japanese and Indian prime ministers began alternating reciprocal visits. Building on the momentum created by the establishment of the Japan-India strategic partnership two years earlier, the Japanese and Indian governments issued a joint statement on security cooperation to mark Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Japan in 2008. In February 2011, the two governments indicated a further strengthening of relations by signing the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), a major step in fostering closer economic ties. Takenori Horimoto, Professor of Contemporary South Asian Politics and US Asian Policy at Shobi University in Saitama, Japan, highlights recent developments and stumbling blocks in the increasingly close relations between Japan and India
