umio Kishida, prime minister of Japan, is laying the groundwork for the dawn of the “era of the Indo-Pacific,” a prescient observation he made in 2015 while he was Japan’s foreign minister. For nearly a decade Japanese leaders have tirelessly toiled to advance a Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP). As president of the G7, Japan is well positioned to firmly establish the centrality of FOIP in preserving an international rules-based order that protects the territorial integrity of Ukraine and Taiwan and a global economy free of economic coercion while energizing economic prosperity of the Global South. All G7 and Quad member-states (Japan, India, Australia, and the U.S.), for their own national interest, should lend their strong support in ushering in the Indo-Pacific era.
Kishida is building on his predecessor Shinzo Abe’s legacy in establishing the Indo-Pacific as the fulcrum of a free and open world. He is pursuing it in both words and deeds. While Germany’s zeitenwende, or “sea change,” in improving its military readiness remains a slow tide yet to make shore, Japan is executing a national strategy that will double defense spending by 2027, leading Japan to boast the third-largest defense budget in the world. The strategy includes development of counter-strike missiles and a new force to recapture islands modeled on the U.S. Marines. Japan is also in discussions with NATO to open a liaison office in the country. Kishida is also close to matching Abe in his diligent diplomatic outreach to allies and partners near and far. Japan, under Abe and now Kishida, remains the indispensable linchpin to a Free and Open Indo-Pacific and to the U.S. Indo-Pacific strategy.
Kishida unveiled his new plan for a Free and Open Indo-Pacific in India on 20 March 2023. The very next day he was on a train to Ukraine to convey solidarity to an imperiled fledgling democracy. There, he pledged unyielding support of Ukrainian resolve in repelling the Russian invasion and to Poland in supporting Ukraine. Before departing for Delhi, Kishida hosted German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and held a joint cabinet session while pledging to co-develop a legal framework for defense and security cooperation. Earlier in the week, he hosted South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, resetting bilateral relations and launching an economic security dialogue. In important symbolism, Kishida’s tireless March diplomacy, rallying allies and partners to the cause of liberty and rule of law capped by a visit to Kyiv, occurred at the same time as his Chinese counterpart was scheming with his autocratic partner in Moscow to dismantle and replace it.
Kishida, in his new FOIP plan, unequivocally frames the region as a bastion of international rules-based order. Abe first articulated FOIP in his 2016 address to the Indian Parliament. Kishida, acknowledging the historic legacy, conveyed renewed relevance and urgency for FOIP to “an international community at history’s turning point.” In the face of the Russian war on Ukraine, Kishida positioned FOIP first and foremost as defending peace and deterring unlawful actions altering the status quo by force. Recognizing strong centrifugal views within the international community on what rules-based order entails, Kishida emphasized the core concepts of FOIP to represent “freedom” and “rule of law” in ensuring the region is prosperous and free from coercion. To that end, he reaffirmed Japan’s commitment to advancing connectivity across the Indo-Pacific and to other free and open geographies including Europe, Middle East, Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean.
Kishida structured Japan’s new FOIP policy along four pillars: principles of peace and rules for prosperity (reaffirming respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity); addressing challenges in an Indo-Pacific way (with emphasis on the realistic and practical); multi-layered connectivity (a core element of FOIP cooperation in enhancing not limiting options available to a nation); and security and safe use of “sea” to the “air” (calling for national claims to be in accordance with international law and to refrain from force or coercion to drive claims while seeking resolution peaceably). He also sought to promote “Asia Zero Emissions Community,” an Indo-Pacific way of balanced energy security and transition toward decarbonization and economic prosperity.
The major tenets of Japan’s new FOIP policy avail themselves to a prudent and practical framework in addressing the top agenda items at this year’s G7 summit ranging from defending the territorial integrity of Ukraine and Taiwan, to repulsing Chinese economic coercion, and to re-establishing relations with the Global South.
The United States, above all, is the biggest beneficiary of Japan’s efforts. Japan is the most critical nation in effectuating the U.S. Indo-Pacific strategy and, in the future, defense of Taiwan’s territorial integrity. Japan is also leading the way in credibly framing the defense of peace and territorial integrity in global not parochial terms, as demonstrated by a Ukraine visit by Kishida the day after unveiling a new FOIP plan in India. Furthermore, Japan is considered by many to be a more consistent and trustworthy economic partner in the Indo-Pacific region than the U.S. For all these reasons, the U.S. should be Japan’s most willing champion at the G7 summit now underway, to firmly entrench FOIP at the center of an international order based on rules.
To inaugurate the era of the Indo-Pacific at the G7 summit, Japan and the U.S., in coordination with close allies, may pursue progress along three major fronts. One, fast-track a congruence between the U.S.-led Indo-Pacific Economic Framework and the Japan-led Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership to create a free, fair and just economic order that does not foster division or economic coercion. Two, establish a FOIP Trusted Connectivity Fund of $100 billion annual outlay contributed by all G7 and Quad nations. The FOIP Fund should be targeted to leverage private capital to meet over $1 trillion annual infrastructure demand across the region. Three, update G7 to reflect economic primacy of the Indo-Pacific by incorporating its leading liberal economies into the fold. A G10 with India, Australia and South Korea as members better represents the reality of modern geoeconomics and offers a stronger buttress for a rules-based economic order.
Substantial progress along the three fronts mentioned will add ballast to the laudable ideals and rhetoric of a Free and Open Indo-Pacific. It behooves responsible G7 and Quad leaders to inform their respective citizenry of the national interest necessity of pursuing this course of action. This applies to the United States in particular. The free and open world has a momentous opportunity to support Japan in binding Europe and the Indo-Pacific in the defense of peace and prosperity at the G7 summit. Kishida has called it the “most important in Japan’s history.” The historical moment should not be allowed to slip away unharnessed.
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At G7, Japan Ushers the Era of the Indo-Pacific
Family photo of the G7 leaders at the Hiroshima Summit, May 21, 2023. Official photo courtesy of the Japanese Presidency.
May 21, 2023
Japan's Prime Minister, is laying the groundwork for the dawn of the “era of the Indo-Pacific,” a prescient observation he made in 2015 while he was Japan’s foreign minister. All G7 and Quad member-states should lend their strong support in ushering in Indo-Pacific era, writes Kaush Arha.
F
umio Kishida, prime minister of Japan, is laying the groundwork for the dawn of the “era of the Indo-Pacific,” a prescient observation he made in 2015 while he was Japan’s foreign minister. For nearly a decade Japanese leaders have tirelessly toiled to advance a Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP). As president of the G7, Japan is well positioned to firmly establish the centrality of FOIP in preserving an international rules-based order that protects the territorial integrity of Ukraine and Taiwan and a global economy free of economic coercion while energizing economic prosperity of the Global South. All G7 and Quad member-states (Japan, India, Australia, and the U.S.), for their own national interest, should lend their strong support in ushering in the Indo-Pacific era.
Kishida is building on his predecessor Shinzo Abe’s legacy in establishing the Indo-Pacific as the fulcrum of a free and open world. He is pursuing it in both words and deeds. While Germany’s zeitenwende, or “sea change,” in improving its military readiness remains a slow tide yet to make shore, Japan is executing a national strategy that will double defense spending by 2027, leading Japan to boast the third-largest defense budget in the world. The strategy includes development of counter-strike missiles and a new force to recapture islands modeled on the U.S. Marines. Japan is also in discussions with NATO to open a liaison office in the country. Kishida is also close to matching Abe in his diligent diplomatic outreach to allies and partners near and far. Japan, under Abe and now Kishida, remains the indispensable linchpin to a Free and Open Indo-Pacific and to the U.S. Indo-Pacific strategy.
Kishida unveiled his new plan for a Free and Open Indo-Pacific in India on 20 March 2023. The very next day he was on a train to Ukraine to convey solidarity to an imperiled fledgling democracy. There, he pledged unyielding support of Ukrainian resolve in repelling the Russian invasion and to Poland in supporting Ukraine. Before departing for Delhi, Kishida hosted German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and held a joint cabinet session while pledging to co-develop a legal framework for defense and security cooperation. Earlier in the week, he hosted South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, resetting bilateral relations and launching an economic security dialogue. In important symbolism, Kishida’s tireless March diplomacy, rallying allies and partners to the cause of liberty and rule of law capped by a visit to Kyiv, occurred at the same time as his Chinese counterpart was scheming with his autocratic partner in Moscow to dismantle and replace it.
Kishida, in his new FOIP plan, unequivocally frames the region as a bastion of international rules-based order. Abe first articulated FOIP in his 2016 address to the Indian Parliament. Kishida, acknowledging the historic legacy, conveyed renewed relevance and urgency for FOIP to “an international community at history’s turning point.” In the face of the Russian war on Ukraine, Kishida positioned FOIP first and foremost as defending peace and deterring unlawful actions altering the status quo by force. Recognizing strong centrifugal views within the international community on what rules-based order entails, Kishida emphasized the core concepts of FOIP to represent “freedom” and “rule of law” in ensuring the region is prosperous and free from coercion. To that end, he reaffirmed Japan’s commitment to advancing connectivity across the Indo-Pacific and to other free and open geographies including Europe, Middle East, Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean.
Kishida structured Japan’s new FOIP policy along four pillars: principles of peace and rules for prosperity (reaffirming respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity); addressing challenges in an Indo-Pacific way (with emphasis on the realistic and practical); multi-layered connectivity (a core element of FOIP cooperation in enhancing not limiting options available to a nation); and security and safe use of “sea” to the “air” (calling for national claims to be in accordance with international law and to refrain from force or coercion to drive claims while seeking resolution peaceably). He also sought to promote “Asia Zero Emissions Community,” an Indo-Pacific way of balanced energy security and transition toward decarbonization and economic prosperity.
The major tenets of Japan’s new FOIP policy avail themselves to a prudent and practical framework in addressing the top agenda items at this year’s G7 summit ranging from defending the territorial integrity of Ukraine and Taiwan, to repulsing Chinese economic coercion, and to re-establishing relations with the Global South.
The United States, above all, is the biggest beneficiary of Japan’s efforts. Japan is the most critical nation in effectuating the U.S. Indo-Pacific strategy and, in the future, defense of Taiwan’s territorial integrity. Japan is also leading the way in credibly framing the defense of peace and territorial integrity in global not parochial terms, as demonstrated by a Ukraine visit by Kishida the day after unveiling a new FOIP plan in India. Furthermore, Japan is considered by many to be a more consistent and trustworthy economic partner in the Indo-Pacific region than the U.S. For all these reasons, the U.S. should be Japan’s most willing champion at the G7 summit now underway, to firmly entrench FOIP at the center of an international order based on rules.
To inaugurate the era of the Indo-Pacific at the G7 summit, Japan and the U.S., in coordination with close allies, may pursue progress along three major fronts. One, fast-track a congruence between the U.S.-led Indo-Pacific Economic Framework and the Japan-led Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership to create a free, fair and just economic order that does not foster division or economic coercion. Two, establish a FOIP Trusted Connectivity Fund of $100 billion annual outlay contributed by all G7 and Quad nations. The FOIP Fund should be targeted to leverage private capital to meet over $1 trillion annual infrastructure demand across the region. Three, update G7 to reflect economic primacy of the Indo-Pacific by incorporating its leading liberal economies into the fold. A G10 with India, Australia and South Korea as members better represents the reality of modern geoeconomics and offers a stronger buttress for a rules-based economic order.
Substantial progress along the three fronts mentioned will add ballast to the laudable ideals and rhetoric of a Free and Open Indo-Pacific. It behooves responsible G7 and Quad leaders to inform their respective citizenry of the national interest necessity of pursuing this course of action. This applies to the United States in particular. The free and open world has a momentous opportunity to support Japan in binding Europe and the Indo-Pacific in the defense of peace and prosperity at the G7 summit. Kishida has called it the “most important in Japan’s history.” The historical moment should not be allowed to slip away unharnessed.
