All the (anti-Chinese) objectives of Japan
What is happening between Japan and China? Here are the latest news. The article by Giuseppe Gagliano
Having already visited Cambodia, this year's ASEAN president, the Japanese leader embarked on a week-long overseas trip that took him in recent days to Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam, before flying to Great Britain and European Union. Japan is rapidly emerging as a major force in Southeast Asia.
Already a major trading and investment partner for ASEAN, Japan has also emerged as a key strategic and defense partner for many Southeast Asian nations, including the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam and Malaysia. Authoritative polls also show that regional policy elites have consistently rated Japan as ASEAN's most trusted foreign partner.
THE JOURNEY OF KISHIDA IN SOUTH-EAST ASIA
During his trip to the region, Kishida sought to fortify and expand strategic ties with regional states, garnering support against a recovering China and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Let's not forget that Tokyo continues to be the largest source of large infrastructure investment in Southeast Asia. In recent years, Japan's investment commitments in the region have totaled a whopping $ 367 billion, much larger than China's $ 255 billion of mostly unfulfilled commitments.
Even during the 2020 pandemic, bilateral trade between Japan and ASEAN reached $ 204 billion, while Japanese foreign direct investment (FDI) flows into Southeast Asia reached $ 8.5 billion.
COMPARISON WITH CHINA
Crucially, unlike China, which enjoys a huge trade surplus with many of its neighbors, Japan tends to be a major export destination for Southeast Asian countries, particularly intermediate and semiconductor goods.
Compared to Chinese investments, Japanese investments also tend to create more jobs for host nations, and proponents say they are more compliant with prevailing standards of good governance and environmental sustainability. As part of its “China Plus One” strategy, Japan has further expanded its investment presence in Southeast Asia, particularly Thailand and Vietnam, where major Japanese companies have established integrated manufacturing facilities globally.
Over the past decade, however, Tokyo has become a more multidimensional power in the region, harnessing its economic leverage to build defense and strategic ties with key ASEAN nations.
PHILIPPINES
An important ally is the Philippines, which have supported the position of Japan and the West on Russia's aggression against Ukraine and, to a lesser extent, on China's maritime assertiveness in the South China Sea.
SINGAPORE
Meanwhile, Singapore is the only regional state to have imposed sanctions on Russia in line with the new round of Western punitive measures against Moscow.
INDONESIA
Japan has a particular relationship with Indonesia: both sides have confirmed their commitment to a rules-based regional order in accordance with Japan's Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP), as well as the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific (AOIP). Similar to the Philippines, Indonesia also has "two and two" talks with Japan amid the boom in bilateral defense ties.
VIETNAM
In Vietnam, Kishida sought to dissuade the Southeast Asian country from further expanding its already strong defense and strategic ties with Russia. Similar to Laos, Vietnam has consistently refrained from voting against Moscow at the United Nations in the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
Over the past few decades, Vietnam has relied on Russia for up to 80% of its defense imports, including state-of-the-art submarines and fighters. While acknowledging that Vietnam will not abandon its defense ties with Russia overnight, Kishida has successfully pushed his hosts to take a more sympathetic stance towards Ukraine. Ultimately, the Japanese Prime Minister's trip certainly served to consolidate his strategic alliances with Asian countries but also to strengthen a foreign policy aimed at containing Chinese expansion in the Pacific and countering Russia's ambitions.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/giappone-kishida-sud-est-asiatico/ on Wed, 04 May 2022 06:04:33 +0000.