Kathmandu. A week ago, the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the newly appointed Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga spoke to each other on matters concerning the development of 5G technology. This comes within Suga’s continuous push for QUAD members to come together and build a “free and open Indo-Pacific”, in order to counter China’s growing presence in the maritime region.

An official who was a part of the discussions stated, “India and Japan have agreed to closely cooperate and develop the 5G and advanced technologies with US and Australia ramping up technological support. We are also taking help from Israel. There are discussions on within the government and our 5G policy will take a final shape in the coming days. But Japan will be a close partner nevertheless.”

Now concerns are piling up regarding the costs that such a venture will inevitably bring in. The Business Standard has reported that Chinese companies, Huawei Technologies and ZTE were not being sidelined in the project. Sanjay Dhotre, the Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology had further noted that the companies were not being excluded from probable contracts. Though the United States of America has been urging countries around the region to stop the use of Chinese 5G technology on suspicions of spying, the Department of Telecommunications is yet to solidify its stance on the matter.

Concerns have re-emerged as reports of informal boycotts have surfaced while tensions have heightened at the border. An opinion piece published in The Global Times has deemed this move by the Indian government as “irrational”, and something that could only worsen its economic situation that has already been put under considerable strain by the Covid-19 pandemic. In trying to dissect the situation, it concluded that if New Delhi was seeking to align with the US against China, India’s national interests would eventually suffer.