JAPAN BOOSTS TIES IN PACIFIC AMID CHINA CONCERNS
Tokyo follows on heels of US and Australia by making moves to engage with island nations in the wake of Beijing’s pact with the Solomons
The signing of the security pact between China and the Solomon Islands last month has raised concerns about the region’s security, especially in the United States, Australia and the Pacific Islands, but Japan too is keeping close tabs on recent developments.
Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi began a three-day trip to Fiji and Palau on Friday, while Uesugi Kentaro, parliamentary vice-minister for foreign affairs, visited the Solomons last week.
The visits came in the wake of disclosures by the Chinese and Solomons governments that both countries had signed a deal that will reportedly allow Beijing to deploy forces and naval assets to the islands.
No final deal has been released but a draft version leaked in March included a provision for Chinese warships to be given safe harbour in the Solomon Islands, just 2,000km from Australia.
To assuage international concerns, Solomon Islands Prime Minister Mannaseh Sogavare told a visiting Japanese delegation last Tuesday that he had no intention of allowing China to build military bases in his country.
Concerned that the deal would significantly extend China’s military reach in the region, analysts said Japan, which has had interests in the territory for decades, should expand its presence into the Pacific Island nations.
Tokyo should also increase aid, investment and undertake capacity building efforts, as well as work with allies to ensure the region does not fall further under Chinese influence, experts added.
Ben Ascione, an assistant professor of international relations at Tokyo’s Waseda University said that, like the US and Australia, Japan was concerned that the security deal could be a stepping stone towards a Chinese military base in the Solomon Islands.
“There is concern about the sort of tactics Chinese police might use if called upon to maintain order and quell protests,” Ascione said, adding that the use of Chinese law enforcement could further intensify divisions in the country, specifically between the Honiara and Malaita provinces.
Malaita has a history of disputes with Guadalcanal province, where the national government is based, and it opposed the 2019 switch of diplomatic ties from Taiwan to Beijing.
Satoru Nagao, a fellow at the Washington-based Hudson Institute, said that if the Chinese navy set up a base in the South Pacific, it would be more difficult to track its ships in the Pacific.
“China can deploy naval ships anytime near Hawaii or other regions between the US and Australia easily and attack Alaska and US Western coasts,” he said.
Japan’s interest in the South Pacific before World War II stemmed from the access to energy, food and resources, noted Kazuto Suzuki, a professor of international political economy at the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Public Policy.
Over the years, South Pacific countries had also supported Tokyo’s bid for a permanent seat at the UN Security Council while in recent years, the region has emerged as part of Japan’s Free and Open Indo Pacific (FOIP) aimed at maintaining a rulesbased order in the region.
Since 1997, Japan has initiated and hosted the triennial Pacific Islands Leaders Meeting which aims to stabilise and support the development of countries in the South Pacific, and to strengthen democratic institutions and rule of law in this region, noted Suzuki.
“These [measures] are of course to prevent China from being over-influential in this region”, Suzuki said.
Since the switching of diplomatic recognition, Beijing has started building a sports stadium, begun repairing the country’s gold mine, and taken over Taipei’s financing of development funds for local parliamentarians. Last year, China also pledged to donate US$11.3 million in rural development funds to the Solomons.
Given the geopolitical importance of the region, Suzuki said that Tokyo ought to increase the amount of financial support and investment there.
“Japan was one of the major contributors to Tonga after the undersea volcano erupted,” Suzuki said referring to the relief supplies and emergency grant aid provided after a volcanic eruption and tsunami earlier this year.
Japan can also invest and build infrastructure to help Pacific countries deal with the effects of climate change, as well as strengthen the Solomon Islands’ coastguard by training and exporting vessels, Suzuki said.
Extremely vulnerable to the effects of climate change, Pacific Islands nations face challenges such as cyclones and droughts, loss of coastal infrastructure, land, coral reefs and mangroves, and failures of subsistence crops.
“Countries in the South Pacific face similar problems with Solomon Islands, what is needed is to strengthen ties with neighbouring nations such as Vanuatu or Fiji,” Suzuki said.
Lucio Blanco Pitlo III, a research fellow at the Manilabased Asia-Pacific Pathways to Progress Foundation, said Japan could “mitigate exposure” of Pacific Islands’ states to China by offering climate change solutions such as renewable energy projects and engineering works such as the building of dykes and sea walls.
“[This] will go a long way in effectively competing with China,” Pitlo said, adding that helping Pacific countries harness, conserve and protect their marine resources, as well as modernising and offering a market for their fisheries, would also have an immediate and lasting positive impact in Tokyo’s relations with countries in the region.
[Japan’s measures] are of course to prevent China from being over-influential KAZUTO SUZUKI, UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO