Rather than being an introduction to specific policies, the Indo-Pacific Strategy is more a “political declaration” by the US and Japan to show the strength of their alliance and enhance mutual trust, said Lu Hao, a Japan expert at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, in an article for the recently published
Annual Report on Research of Japan (2018).
While jointly pushing forward the agenda of the Indo-Pacific strategy, Japan and the US have started by strengthening ties with fulcrum countries in the region such as India and Australia, said the article. In addition to pushing forward trilateral dialogues with India and Australia as the basic coordination schemes for Indo-Pacific, Japan has also been promoting four party foreign minister talks or even summit meetings.
Promotions surrounding the strategy have been value-based, according to the article. It endorses openness and cooperation but in fact has explicitly targeted China as a rival. By depicting China as a basic issue to be addressed by the strategy, the US and Japan are attempting to make use of emerging powers in the region such as India to contain China’s rise, Lu wrote.
In terms of their division of responsibilities, the US has performed as a strategic leader while Japan was given the role as a coordinator and an actual performer of the policies, Lu said. For Japan, the Indo-Pacific is all that it has for the moment to push forward its strategic diplomacy, while for the US, it is merely a replaceable part of its global strategy. Therefore, there will be a certain level of discrepancy between Japan and the US when they design their goals for the strategy.
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