Japan and the European Union signed an economic partnership agreement (EPA) in July to eliminate or reduce tariffs on imports from each other. After five years of going through twists and turns in EPA talks, both sides thus showed their lofty determination to uphold free trade, which U.S. President Donald Trump scorns.
The trade pact is a remarkable economic achievement indeed, given that Japan and the EU account for about 30 percent of the world's gross domestic product. Yet its historical significance does not stop there: Japan and Europe share the fundamental values of human rights and democracy and distinguish themselves for the high level of education and science that enables them to develop intellectual property. They have more in common -- a society of dignity with cultures dating back more than 1,000 years.
The pact links two civilizations with the same values -- Japan and Europe -- that are located at the far ends of Eurasia, with varied civilizations such as China, Russia and Islamic countries lying between them. In other words, the countries in Europe that created modern civilization and the country that has proved that such civilization is a common property of mankind, regardless of race, are now geared to cooperate further with each other. It can be said that the two sides have begun paving the way to effectively connect the Pacific and the Atlantic.
The Pacific and the Atlantic have to tackle problems unique to each of them. In Europe, the EU came close to breaking up in 2015 and 2016 in the wake of the influx of refugees and migrants to its member states and Britain's referendum decision to leave the union. The 2017 election of Emmanuel Macron as France's new president reduced the possibility of the EU collapsing. As a result, the EU has now consolidated its position vis-a-vis Britain, making it uncertain whether British Prime Minister Theresa May can successfully negotiate a "soft Brexit deal" with the union. In addition, the EPA with Japan is likely to make the EU more attractive in economic terms.
Rebranded TPP
On the Pacific side, President Trump's absurd decision to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade agreement dealt a blow to the regional pact. But the remaining 11 member countries, including Japan and Australia, have kept it alive by signing what they now call the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), also known as the TPP-11. The rebranded pact is expected to go into effect shortly. Thailand has sought membership in the revived version, and, interestingly enough, Britain, while going ahead with the Brexit plan, recently said it will potentially seek accession to the CPTPP.
France is another European country that is interested in accessing the Pacific, though mostly for security reasons. For example, Japan and France have agreed to establish a bilateral defense cooperation mechanism, called "maritime dialogue," initiated by the Macron administration. The two countries plan for the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force and the French Navy to have joint exercises. They will also jointly explore energy resources. It may be a novel idea to seek the help of Europe in countering China's strategy to increase its naval reach.
As the partnership between Japan and Europe has been strengthened to such an extent, the next thing to be inevitably done is to build a political and economic pathway to connect both sides. As for this matter, China has been blatantly ambitious for a long time to extend its overwhelming influence abroad under the name of the "Belt and Road" initiative. There is no reason to oppose China's plans to improve its railway systems within the country. But, if the initiative results in a situation where it brings the Indian Ocean under China's control and dominates the Japan-EU pathway, all as dreamt of by Chinese President Xi Jinping, there will likely be serious consequences.
When we think of how and where the Japan-Europe pathway should be established, what naturally occurs to us is India, the country regarded as a "sleeping lion" on the diplomatic front despite its enormous potential in demographic and geographical terms. Recently, India is said to have finally awoken and begun to move toward its emergence as a diplomatic power.
Volume 88 of the Japanese magazine Asteion carried an interesting article contributed by Indian political scientist Vivek Prahladan. He wrote that such a drastic change became possible thanks to the inauguration of Narendra Modi as India's prime minister. According to Prahladan, Modi has become the first Indian prime minister to raise the importance of foreign policy agendas within the government and give equal weight to domestic and foreign affairs.
Modi initially shifted the decision-making authority over India's foreign policy from the Foreign Ministry to the Prime Minister's Office, seizing the initiative in steering the country's foreign policy on his own. He also broke with India's traditional foreign policy priority -- the nearsighted fixation on relations with Pakistan and the disputed Himalayan border with China. Instead, he began placing greater importance on the Indian Ocean, which had been the No. 3 foreign policy priority for India. Modi eventually adopted an "Act East" policy, pursuing greater regional partnerships with Japan and Southeast Asian countries, among others.
That said, it is obvious that the most important agenda for Modi continues to be the development and growth of the Indian economy and that, therefore, he cannot keep a distance from China. In June this year, he invited the Beijing-initiated Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) to hold its third annual meeting in Mumbai and promised that India, the largest recipient of AIIB funding, will keep utilizing the bank's finances. Although such a realistic approach to China is likely to continue in the years ahead, as Prahladan pointed out in the magazine article, the very basis of a nation remains supported, first and foremost, by the set of values and historical traditions it upholds.
Prahladan also commented that the reason that Modi supports democracy and human rights is that the current leader inherits the spirit of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of India, who assumed the post in August 1947. Nehru, one of India's founding fathers, according to the political scientist, traced the origins of Indian civilization back to the 3rd century B.C. when Asoka the Great ruled India.
India boasts of a civilization that may be superior to the Japanese and European civilizations and, based on its own civilization, is the world's largest democracy, thus sharing values with Japan and Europe. Nevertheless, it seems that Japan became seriously aware of the existence of India only in recent years. It was only in 2016 when Prime Minister Shinzo Abe started championing the political concept of a "free and open Indo-Pacific," which was later adopted by the Trump administration.
Vast Japan-Europe route
It is good to see India, Japan and the United States acting in unison to attach importance to one another to the extent that an epoch-making alliance among the three countries is apparently emerging. But there are some points that make us feel concerned. I mean that, compared with Japan's multifaceted approach to India, the United States remains inclined to its past policy toward India, focusing on military cooperation. In fact, Washington is interested in selling fighter jets to India and continuing a joint U.S.-India naval exercise called the Malabar drill, which was originally launched in 1992 and now is a trilateral event involving Japan.
In contrast, Japan has extended official development assistance to other countries along the Indian Ocean, including Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh as well to improve their port facilities as a way of promoting exports. Japan has provided India with financial and technological assistance tailored to the needs of local communities and residents. For instance, a list of potential healthcare projects the Japanese government has been considering under the name Asian Health and Well-being Initiative (AHWI) reportedly includes an impressive proposal. It is said to envisage an emergency life-saving center in New Delhi, where the number of traffic accidents has continued rising sharply, with surgeons to be dispatched from Japan. I praise this as a really Japanese and detailed way of responding to what the recipients actually need.
I want to emphasize in particular that Japan should maintain such a well-thought-out assistance policy with a far-sighted vision about the meaning of the policy. The vision should set a clear direction for redefining the Indo-Pacific as an alliance pathway that should function as a vast pathway toward unity, starting from both Japan and the United States and finishing in Europe.
Southeast Asian countries and Australia, among others, are on that vast pathway. None of them any longer regard Japan in terms of being their World War II enemy. In Northeast Asia, meanwhile, Japan's foreign policy remains affected by the "issue of history," making us uncomfortable even though we are serious about promoting "future-oriented" relationships with our neighboring countries. The pathway has no such a stumbling block along it. So we can expect to keep developing genuinely future-oriented relationships with the countries along it.
Yamazaki is a playwright and critic. Previously he was a professor at Osaka University and chaired the Central Council on Education. The government has named him a Person of Cultural Merit.
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