全球智库信息集成服务系统

Therefore, Tokyo is stepping up its security cooperation in the region through the promotion of regional maritime and security institutions, but more importantly, by building strategic partnerships and helping to foster the maritime capacities of key like-minded countries (notably Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam).

These initiatives augment the “great game” of influence currently underway in Southeast Asia and in which Japan is soft-balancing China and supporting a more sustainable US presence. Still, forging strategic partnerships is not an easy task as ASEAN countries, if increasingly polarized, are not passive in the face of the great powers contest.

As East Asia grows seemingly more divided and as a competition for influence is flaring up, Europe is politically absent. Yet, expectations for more politico-military involvement from European countries in the region do exist, especially in Japan. If discussions about a possible “EU pivot” to East Asia are developing, many obstacles and limitations still constrain an expansion of European influence in the region.