Japan could be the key to EU ambitions in the Indo-Pacific

Cold, hard geopolitics is back in force and the EU has decided that it will not stand aside.

The war in Ukraine is cementing the Union’s growing geopolitical role, but if it is to realize its full potential, it must refocus on the Indo-Pacific, a region of vital strategic importance.

To that end, connectivity is its most promising foreign policy tool, taking full advantage of the bloc’s phenomenal economic power. In the busy Indo-Pacific, the EU must strengthen multilateral coordination with its main partners, with Japan leading the way.

A strong partnership between the EU and Japan can be the driving force to maintain and modernize the liberal international order in the Indo-Pacific.

Together, Japan and the EU can promote the global digital transition based on democratic principles. Digitization provides the critical infrastructure to drive the innovation, growth and development needed to address major global challenges beyond the digital sector, from the green transition to improving public services. It is therefore crucial that digital interoperability in the Indo-Pacific is (re)founded in freedom, openness and designed with people at the center.

An EU-Japan Trade and Technology Council to speed up progress

The EU-Japan strategic partnership is based on common geopolitical assessments and bilateral commitments: the partnership on sustainable connectivity and quality infrastructure of 2019, the EU-Japan Green Alliance of 2021 and the Japan-EU digital partnership approved at the 2022 Summit.

Digitization is the cornerstone of connectivity cooperation between the EU and Japan, as highlighted at the launch of the digital partnership in May 2022. Both countries have committed to promoting a “human-centred digital transformation” based on their digital economies and their capacity for innovation.

The global leadership of Europe and Japan in the protection of personal data, as well as the security of cross-border data flows, could be extended through joint investments in self-sufficient solutions for data management or cloud infrastructures that preserve the privacy of service providers. trust.

These flagship initiatives, which are based on the local needs and priorities of partner countries and supported by the global gateway of the EU, offer a counterpoint to the Chinese model of data mining in the Indo-Pacific and other parts of the world. To speed up implementation, the priority strategy should be to maximize complementarities and favor interoperability to avoid duplication.

At the governance level, the EU and Japan should take advantage of their dialogue on informatics to deepen the cooperation mechanisms existing governmental organizations, involving stakeholders from the industrial, technical and educational sectors. This would help further capacity building in cyber diplomacy and make both nations – and their economies – more resilient to malicious actors.

To put this approach into practice and create a shared leadership forum, the two partners should establish an EU-Japan Council on Trade and Technology (CCT), similar to the EU CCTs with the US (2021), and India (2022). . Almost all of the EU-US CST technology policy priorities are also found in the EU-Japan Summit declaration: critical infrastructure and resilient supply chains, cybersecurity (including secure networks), combating technological authoritarianism, surveillance and oppression, green digital and data infrastructures, and alignment of safe and ethical approaches to artificial intelligence (AI).

“The implementation of this partnership will be decisive in countering the often opaque and undemocratic governance of digitization and connectivity in general”

As for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)), by continuing to invest in digital public infrastructures that favor access to education, financial inclusion, public services and green technology, the CCT would allow both nations to enhance their role in defending the SDGs at the national and global levels. They would do this by incorporating progress targets into new investments and projects in the Indo-Pacific.

This also includes improving the use of data sets and AI capabilities for Earth observation, greenhouse gas, and climate data. Via joint AI R&D initiatives, the projects being carried out by the European Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency could be matched and aligned. This would promote open access databases and research mobility collaborations for high-impact projects related to the SDGs.

Both the EU and Japan have the necessary skills, experience and convening power to lead digital connectivity. To maximize their impact, the EU and Japan should be ambitious and actively move from bilateral to multilateral leadership.

The EU in the Indo-Pacific: many partners, few friends

The EU has continued to nurture its relationship with the main players in the Indo-Pacific, such as India and the ASEAN states.

Japan has done the same. Beyond the geographical and cultural proximity to Japan, these countries are essential for the demographic and economic growth of the region. Their growing political importance in multilateral institutions intersects with deep development challenges: few have fully recovered from the pandemic and many are already suffering the consequences of climate change.

As important as it is for the EU to cooperate closely with the US and Australia in the Indo-Pacific, it cannot avoid involving ASEAN and India beyond purely trade issues to ensure their influence. The obvious solution would be for Japan and the EU to join forces as both already share strategic partnerships with these countries.

The EU’s multifaceted partnership with ASEAN – which became strategic in 2020– and the bloc’s multilateral nature make it a natural partner. The first ASEAN-EU summit, on December 14, 2022, will be an opportunity for the EU to show that it can be a reliable partner in the region, beyond mere financial assistance.

ASEAN will also soon have to update its Connectivity Master Plan 2025first adopted in 2016. Coordination with Japan to help shape a Master Plan that maximizes complementarities and favors interoperability could bring enormous EU leverage over the region’s connectivity landscape in the long term.

A similar triangular approach should be taken with India, recognizing its centrality to the Indo-Pacific and the global digital transition. India continues to foster a special relationship with Japan, which is not only its partner in the Quad, but also a contributor of large amounts of strategic development aid to New Delhi.

Beyond investment volumes, it is the way Japan is doing business with India that is boosting local confidence. It is now clear that Indian foreign policy will continue to seek balance between Russia and the EU. The EU can strengthen its trust and strong ties with India through a bundled connectivity offer, while fostering complementarities and favoring interoperability with Japan.

In short, EU-Japan digital cooperation is the key to maintaining and modernizing the liberal international order in the Indo-Pacific. It is an opportunity that both powers should actively seize.

Putting this partnership into practice through triangulation and more horizontal political dialogue will be instrumental in countering the often opaque and undemocratic governance of digitization and connectivity in general, which has become more prevalent both in the region and as a whole. in the world.

Article originally published in English in the Web of CEPS.