The trilateral India-United States-Japan interaction was not aimed at forging a new grouping but cooperating in various avenues like countering terrorism and responding to global pandemics and natural disasters, Indian Ambassador Ronen Sen has said.

Noting that the three democracies have a tradition of contributing to the international system, he said their interaction evolved from growing recognition of convergence of their ideals and interests and the desirability of channeling these in a constructive and cooperative direction.

"Whether it is foreign aid, technical assistance or responding to global challenges, none of the three have pursued mercantilist approaches. This determines in many ways the agenda for developing the trilateral relationship," Sen told the Japan [Images] Society in New York on Friday, adding that the trilateral interaction did not emerge from a decision to forge a new grouping or alliance.

"Issues ranging from countering international terrorism, responding to global pandemics and natural disasters, protecting the environment, addressing illegal trafficking in narcotics, arms and people, promoting stability and prosperity, are among the many avenues of enhanced cooperation between India, Japan and the United States."

Sen maintained that the intersection of the shared interests of the three countries finds its reflection in multilateral institutions and that both India and Japan have staked their rightful claim to permanent membership of the United Nations Security Council.

"All three countries have shared values and aspirations of democracies based on the rule of law. The United States and India took the lead in setting up the UN Democracy Fund. Japan is an important contributor to this Fund."                                      

"India, Japan and the United States cooperate closely in the Community of Democracies. All three countries also recognise that democracy and development are not only compatible, but inextricably linked, and that free markets are most sustainable in free societies," Sen told the august gathering.

In harnessing high technologies for socio-economic development, he said, "There are significant avenues of mutually beneficial cooperation between the United States, the world's greatest centre of innovation; Japan, with its excellence in modern technologies; and India, with its large and growing pool of talented scientific and technical manpower."

"The successful conclusion of an India-US agreement on civil nuclear energy cooperation would give additional momentum to cooperation in other areas of high technology, including biotechnology, nanotechnology and defence technologies," he said.

India has ongoing space collaboration with both the United States and Japan, based on research and development in this field by all three countries, the outgoing Indian Ambassador to Washington noted.

"Energy security is another key element of convergence of interests of India, Japan and the US. All three countries are highly dependent on imported hydrocarbons. All three have high stakes in diversifying their energy portfolios with new, renewable and clean sources of energy."

"All three are partners in the ITER fusion project, the Asia-Pacific Clean Development Partnership and other projects," the top Indian diplomat said stressing on the three countries' vital stakes in the security of sea-lanes, attaching highest priority to preventing the spread of weapons of mass destruction and commitment to combating global terrorism.

"India and Japan have shared interests in maintaining the security of sea-lanes in the Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean, and in cooperation for combating transnational crime, terrorism, piracy and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction," Sen said.

"We have set up a structured Defence Policy Dialogue. We have a Comprehensive Security Dialogue as well as Military to Military talks. A Memorandum of Cooperation was signed by our Coast Guards. We have a bilateral Joint Working Group on Counter-Terrorism. We have held bilateral, trilateral and multilateral joint military exercises, and hope to continue these," he said.

The India-Japan Strategic and Global Partnership is based on five pillars of cooperation, namely, political, defence and security cooperation; comprehensive economic partnership; science and technology initiative; people-to-people exchanges and cooperation in regional and multilateral fora, Sen said, pointing at the rapid strides on the economic front.

"There has been movement towards overcoming the stagnation of India-Japan trade which was witnessed in the late 90s. Last year, the trade turnover was around US$ 7.46 billion, with a trade surplus of US$ 1.7 billion in Japan's favour. Both sides acknowledge that such a low level of trade is not commensurate with the potential, and have set a trade turnover target of US$ 20 billion by 2010.

"A high-level Economic Dialogue has been established as an overarching dialogue mechanism on all economic issues. Negotiations have been initiated for the finalisation of a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement," Sen said.

He pointed out that Japan is currently India's third largest source of foreign direct investment. Japanese companies have made cumulative investments of around US$ 2.6 billion in India since 1991. "We could do better," said Sen.