Japan and U.S. alliance remains strong today
Threatening developments in China draw attention to the strong alliance between Japan and the United States.
The deterioration of relations between China and the U.S. encompasses trade, espionage, and abuse of human rights. The last includes persecution of minorities in China as well as Beijing’s harsh new law aimed at clamping down on freedom in Hong Kong.
The substantial arms buildup by China receives continuing global attention and concern, along with the wider regional arms race, and ongoing maritime disputes. North Korea, a communist ally of China, combines violent rhetoric, nuclear weapons development, and provocative actions, adding to tensions in the region.
Japan-u.s. collaboration grows
Late in the Obama administration, U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter visited the new Izumo, Japan’s largest military ship since World War II. Forces from Japan have been in the Indian Ocean in support of the NATO and United Nations military and economic missions in Afghanistan. This was the first time Japan warships have appeared in that part of the world since 1945.
On Sept. 25, 2019, Japan and the U.S. announced a limited but important new bilateral trade agreement. The accord encompasses tariff cuts in agricultural and industrial products, and agreement on how to handle digital trade. This follows a decade of frustration of efforts to improve important bilateral economic relations, and weakening of ambitious regional economic collaboration.
The abandonment of the Trans-pacific Partnership by the U.S. has overshadowed, but only for a time, the steady growth of Pacific regional institutions for economic cooperation. This has continued during the Trump administration in institutional terms, hostile U.S. rhetoric aside. ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) was created in 1967 and has growing influence.
Australia Prime Minister Bob Hawke conceived APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation) in 1989. The initiative was embraced enthusiastically by President George H.W. Bush and Secretary of State James Baker, as the Cold War with the Soviet Union was clearly ending.
In the Atlantic region, NATO and the European Union can trace their origins back to the late 1940s and early 1950s respectively. By contrast, Asia lacks the same long-established framework of collaborative institutions.
Since 1980, United States trade with Asia overall has been greater than with Europe, and that differential continues to expand. The Pacific region encompasses a steadily expanding share of the world’s economic product, investment and trade.
President Obama in 2009 participated in an APEC summit in Singapore and thereafter continued to underscore Asia’s importance. This sustained emphasis by Washington helped to strengthen Asia’s regional organizations as global as well as Pacific partners.
This in turn facilitated efforts to mitigate the 2007-09 financial crisis and recession, which was worldwide in scope but concentrated in the Atlantic region. Asia’s economic strength has been crucial to the continuing recovery long term.
Today, free markets, and global trade and investment gradually encourage stability and the rule of law in Asia, as elsewhere in the world. At the same time, the enormous arms buildup in the Pacific region requires sustained monitoring and countermeasures.