When Shinzo Abe lands in New Delhi on Monday, exactly 50 years after his maternal grandfather became the first Japanese prime minister to visit an independent India, he will receive a warmer reception than many of his predecessors.

Japan has until recently been the missing link in India’s post-1991 engagement with the world. Now, however, relations that plunged into a deep freeze after New Delhi’s 1998 nuclear weapons test are being revived by a shared concern at the implications of a rising China.