India, Japan, and the United States, amongst the most powerful pacific democracies, will be meeting in Washington, DC on December 19th for trilateral talks. Discussing a range of Asia-Pacific topics, India looks to further engage with Japan and the US, while the US appears to be looking for an opportunity to change its role in Asia as the wars in the Middle East wind down.
The nations have similar goals: all three have expanding economic relationships with China, as well as an interest in seeing a progressive growth in Asia’s businesses and productivity. Their militaries have operated jointly in the March, 2011 Japanese tsunami relief efforts and they could build on that interaction to strengthen regional stability. Trilateral talks between India, Japan and the US could lead the way in Asia on expanding nuclear energy’s safety and use, international cooperation to combat climate change and future economic cooperation.