Japan has been enhancing its security ties with various Southeast Asian nations ahead of a Japan-ASEAN summit that is scheduled to be held in Tokyo from 16-18 December. According to analysts, this forum is being held to offset China’s aggressive behaviour in the region, VOA News reported.
Japan will host the ASEAN-Japan Commemorative Summit in Tokyo marking the 50 anniversary of ASEAN-Japan friendship and cooperation.
According to analysts, China despite not being present at the summit is likely to figure prominently during the talks, VOA News reported. Kingston, professor of history and Asian studies at Temple University, Japan Campus, said, Japan considers China’s regional hegemonic ambitions as a “grave threat to its security.
In an email to VOA, Kingston said, “Japan regards China’s regional hegemonic ambitions as a grave threat to its security and has actively worked to upgrade security partnerships … to contain China in line with the US-backed free and open Indo-Pacific.”
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Japan and 10 ASEAN nations want to expand relations at a time when “the free and open international order based on the rule of law is under serious challenge.
He said challenges in the Indo-Pacific include “attempts to unilaterally change the status quo by force” in the East and South China seas and “North Korea’s increasing nuclear missile activities,” according to VOA News report.
Kishida stressed that ASEAN is “the key for the realisation of Japan’s vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific,” and added that the economic prosperity of ASEAN’s 10 members “can only be achieved if the peace and stability of the region are protected.”
