Abe’s Diamond Defense Diplomacy
By Yuka Hayashi
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is making his first foray into regional diplomacy this week with a three-nation tour of Southeast Asia,
offering a first look at his stance and skills as a diplomat,
including how exactly he will handle tensions with China and promote
ties with other neighbors in Asia.
- Reuters
- Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe speaks during a news briefing at the Government Office in Hanoi January 16. Mr. Abe is in Hanoi for a two-day visit to Vietnam, the first leg of his Asian tour to Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia.
While
he may be pulling his punches a bit in his public appearances, the new
leader known for his divisive foreign policy views offered a
surprisingly frank preview of his regional diplomacy and defense in a
recent little-noticed essay.
The
prime minister published an article in late December on a global
commentary web site in which he articulated his views on national
security in East Asia. The piece titled “Asia’s Democratic Security
Diamond,” confirms the widely held perception among policy experts that
the prime minister is a security hawk who believes in assertive
policies based on confrontation, rather than conciliatory stances
focused on promoting friendship. It also explains the thinking behind
his call for beefing up Japan’s defense capability, which has made some
of Japan’s Asian neighbors nervous.
The
crown jewel of Mr. Abe’s policy is a thinly veiled strategy of
containment against China, dubbed an “Asian security diamond.”
“I
envisage a strategy whereby Australia, India, Japan and the U.S. state
of Hawaii form a diamond to safeguard the maritime commons stretching
from the Indian Ocean region to the western Pacific,” Mr. Abe wrote. “I
am prepared to invest, to the greatest possible extent, Japan’s
capabilities in this security diamond.”
In
particular, Mr. Abe calls for a greater emphasis on promoting defense
and economic cooperation between India and Japan, noting that the two
nations must “join together to shoulder more responsibility as
guardians of navigational freedom across the Pacific and Indian oceans.”
The essay was
posted on Dec. 27 on the web site of Project Syndicate, a Prague- and
New York-based non-profit syndicate of newspapers from around the
world, which carries commentaries from global leaders.
The
idea of the diamond is based on Mr. Abe‘s outlook on China’s military
expansion in the East Asian waters – one characterized by suspicion and
alarm.
‘’The
South China Sea seems set to become a ‘Lake Beijing’..a sea deep
enough for the People’s Liberation Army’s navy to base their
nuclear-powered attack submarines, capable of launching missiles with
nuclear warheads,” the prime minister wrote. “Soon, the PLA Navy’s newly
built aircraft carrier will be a common sight – more than sufficient
to scare China’s neighbors.”
He
goes on to explain how Japan should respond to this type of behavior
by China. “This is why Japan must not yield to the Chinese government’s
daily exercises in coercion around the Senkaku Islands in the East
China Sea,” he said. “By making these boats’ presence appear ordinary,
China seeks to establish its jurisdiction in the waters surrounding the
islands as a fait accompli.”
Mr.
Abe is scheduled to deliver a policy speech outlining his foreign
policy stance Friday as he visits Jakarta, the last stop of his
three-nation tour, which will also include Vietnam and Thailand.
From: http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2013/01/17/abes-diamond-defense-diplomacy/
No comments:
Post a Comment