STRENGTH IN UNION
Strength in union
Marking a boost in the EU’s engagement with the Indo-Pacific region, the first ever EU-Japan security agreement also coincides with growing belligerence from China and Russia. Amit Agnihotri reports.
The first-ever security and defence agreement between the European Union and Japan has marked a significant milestone in the 27-nation group’s increasing engagement with the strategic Indo-Pacific region, and shown that its security is closely linked to that of the Euro-Atlantic.
This pact has assumed particular importance, coming as it does against the backdrop of the EU working to reset its trade relations with China, whose close ties with Russia and North Korea have threatened peace in the Indo-Pacific.
Another reason behind the agreement is that Japan, a member of the US-led, four-nation anti-China Quad, has been trying to become a military power over the last few years, in order to counter increasing threats from Beijing.
Japan’s militarisation, following decades of pacifism after World War II, began in 2021 in response to North Korea’s aggressive Inter Continental Ballistic Missile program, which threatened Japanese national security. That program was aided by China, whose warships conducted joint naval patrols and exercises in the Pacific Ocean, along with the Russian navy, with the aim of sending a stern message to Tokyo.
In recent years, China – which claims most of the disputed South China Sea, as well as the Japan-held Senkaku islands in the East China Sea – has played down its growing maritime activities, saying that Beijing has the right to defend its sovereignty, security and development interests.
The Senkaku islands chain, which is around 1,900km from Tokyo but only 600km from the Chinese province of Shanghai, have been a bone of contention between Japan and China for over a century.
Problems for Japan started in February, 2021, when China enacted a new maritime security law which allowed its coastguard ships to attack foreign vessels in waters that Beijing deemed its territory. This, even as Chinese vessels routinely violated Japan’s territorial waters around the Senkaku islands and at times threatened Japanese fishing boats.
Then came the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, which revived the Cold War era rivalry between Washington and Moscow and disrupted the established geopolitical order.
The war in Ukraine shook the security apparatus within Europe
The war in Ukraine, which originated from Russia’s desire to stop Kyiv from becoming a member of NATO at any cost, shook the security apparatus within Europe and forced its leaders to evolve strategies to counter the emerging Beijing-Moscow axis.
In the subsequent years, as the Asian Dragon flexed its muscles to threaten breakaway province Taiwan’s independence dreams, the China-Russia-North Korea axis took shape. This worried the West, which, in its turn, started strengthening the US-Japan-South Korea triad as a countermeasure.
It is against this backdrop that the first ever EU-Japan security pact has taken shape, and begun to strengthen.
As Josep Borrell, High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy of the European Union and Vice-President of the European Commission, and Japan’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Takeshi Iwaya announced the defence agreement in Tokyo on November 1, they expressed concern over Russia’s deepening military cooperation with North Korea. This includes the deployment of troops to Moscow, arms transfers between the two countries in flagrant violation of multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions, and Pyongyang’s nuclear and ballistic missile program.
Japan’s militarisation, following decades of pacifism, began in response to North Korea’s Inter Continental Ballistic Missile program.
Interestingly, the EU-Japan defence agreement was announced a day after North Korea fired a special ICBM-class ballistic missile, inviting sharp criticism from the US. According to reports, around 10,000 North Korean troops have been training in Russia to counter Ukraine, which means there may be no early end to the ongoing war. As expected, both the EU and Japan noted that international sanctions against Russia for invading Ukraine, along with support for Kyiv, should continue.
The EU-Japan security pact flowed from the joint statement issued after the Japan-EU Summit in Brussels on July 13 last year, which first noted the interconnected nature of security in both Europe and the Indo-Pacific, and flagged up the need for the two sides to develop a security partnership, promoting increased cooperation on maritime security, cybersecurity, hybrid threats, including foreign information manipulation and interference, counter-terrorism, disarmament, non-proliferation and international peace cooperation.
A year before that Japan formulated its National Defence Strategy in 2022, which marked a key shift in the security policy of the island nation. Since then, Tokyo has been trying to double its defence expenditure, from the mandated 1 per cent of GDP to around 2 per cent, strengthening security alliance with the US and deepening military cooperation with European countries such as the UK, France, Germany and the Netherlands to counter Chinese aggression.
Japan spends $50 billion annually on defence, compared to the US’s $778bn, China’s $252bn, India’s $71bn and Russia’s $61bn. The UK spends $59bn, France $52bn, and Germany $52 bn.
Credit for pushing up Japan’s military spending goes to former prime minister, the late Shinzo Abe, who floated the concept of a ‘free and open Indo-Pacific’ in 2016. Abe enacted security laws to allow Japanese troops to fight on foreign soil, ended a ban on military exports and reinterpreted the country’s pacifist constitution to allow missile strikes on enemy territory.
Abe’s policies have been carried forward by his successors, Yoshihide Suga, Fumio Kishida, who reviewed the country’s security strategy in the National Security Council meeting held in September 2021, and incumbent Shigeru Ishiba.
The EU-Japan Strategic Partnership Agreement, which has been provisionally applied since February 1, 2019, saw cooperation over issues like democracy, the rule of law, human rights and fundamental freedoms. The remaining provisions, relating to disarmament and non-proliferation, as well as counter terrorism, will be applied from January 1, 2025 when the entire pact will come into force.
Both the EU and Japan agree there is a need to directly express their common concerns over China’s aggression and call for action as responsible members of the international community, whilst at the same time cooperating with Beijing on global issues such as climate change and areas of common interest, and building constructive and stable relations through dialogue.
Besides military security, Japan had been pursuing economic security with the EU over the past years. In 2023, then Prime Minister Kishida noted his appreciation that the EU’s new economic security strategy was in line with Tokyo’s efforts.
That same year, during his visit to the NATO Summit, Kishida noted that Asian partner countries accounted for about 36 per cent of European countries’ trade volume and highlighted that cooperation among like-minded countries across the region had become increasingly important.
Since then, Japan has been promoting cooperation with NATO in new areas such as cyber, emerging disruptive technologies, space and strategic communications, including responses to information operations.
Amit Agnihotri is a Delhi-based journalist who has worked with several national newspapers and focuses on politics and policy issues