Japan is quietly gaining an edge amid a growing competition between India
and China
Christopher Woody
 May. 31, 2018, 06:18 PM
[image: Narendra Modi Xi Jinping India China BRICS]AP Photo/Manish Swarup

   - *China has been expanding its foreign involvement, in part through
   development projects around the world.*
   - *Beijing's growing influence has concerned its neighbors — chief among
   them India and Japan.*
   - *To counter China, Tokyo is looking for a bigger role in the region,
   working with India to get it.*

------------------------------
China's growing presence in the Indian Ocean region worries India, which
has sought to counter Beijing's influence there. But India is not the only
country in Asia looking to balance against a rising China
<http://www.businessinsider.com/ways-countries-in-asia-are-responding-to-china-2018-5?utm_source=markets&utm_medium=ingest>
..
Japan, which has long deferred to the US, is now pursuing a bigger role,
expanding security partnerships in the region and boosting its involvement
in infrastructure projects — many of which rival China's own projects.
In 2015, Tokyo announced plans to spend hundreds of billions on
infrastructure projects in Asia, Oceania, and Africa in coming years, and
since 2016, Japan has committed nearly $8 billion
<https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/japan-plans-build-free-and-open-indian-ocean>
 to projects to develop ports and related infrastructure around the Indian
Ocean.
"The scale of [Japan's] infrastructure investments in the region rivals,
and sometimes exceeds, that of China," David Brewster, a specialist in
South Asian and Indian Ocean strategic affairs at the Australian National
University, wrote this week
<https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/japan-plans-build-free-and-open-indian-ocean>
 for the Lowy Institute's Interpreter.
Such projects are part of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Free and
Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP) Strategy, meant to further connect Asia and Africa
and the Pacific and Indian Oceans while promoting stability and prosperity.
[image: Japan Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe India Indian Narendra
Modi]REUTERS/Adnan
Abidi
FOIP projects currently under consideration
<http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0004465715?m=jnnl> include a joint
project with India and Sri Lanka to expand an existing port at Trincomalee
in Sri Lanka, a joint project with Myanmar and Thailand to build a new port
and special economic zone around Dawei in Myanmar, and a project with
Bangladesh to build a new port at Matabari to handle half that country's
cargo volume.
Japan has started behind-the-scenes talks with those governments, and
Japan's International Cooperation Agency has started drafting plans for
those projects, according
<http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0004465715?m=jnnl> to Japanese
newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun.
While China recently acquired a 99-year lease of a Sri Lankan port at
Hambantota, which raised ire in India
<http://www.businessinsider.com/indias-concern-with-beijing-expansion-grows-with-sri-lanka-port-deal-2017-8?utm_source=markets&utm_medium=ingest>,
The Yomiuri Shimbun reported that China failed to make progress on similar
projects in Myanmar and Bangladesh due to Japan's development plans.
Delhi helped influence Bangladesh's decision to award the Matarbari project
to Tokyo, and Japan and India could cooperate
<https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/japan-plans-build-free-and-open-indian-ocean>
 on future projects, including at Trincomalee and on Iran's Chabahar port,
which India sees as a valuable link to central Asian markets
<http://www.businessinsider.com/india-steering-a-tricky-path-through-us-allies-and-foes-in-south-asia-2017-11?utm_source=markets&utm_medium=ingest>
 (though that project could be affected by US sanctions on Iran.)
Japan's interest in a bigger regional role isn't new
<http://foreignpolicy.com/2018/02/09/japan-takes-the-lead-in-countering-chinas-belt-and-road/>,
but has grown in recent months, amid doubts about US policy
<http://www.businessinsider.com/ways-countries-in-asia-are-responding-to-china-2018-5?utm_source=markets&utm_medium=ingest>
 in the region. But, Brewster writes, Japan's approach is in clear
competition
<https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/japan-plans-build-free-and-open-indian-ocean>
 with China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
The BRI has been criticized as being unsustainable and lacking
transparency, and China has been accused of using it to further "debt-trap
diplomacy
<http://www.businessinsider.com/china-influence-pacific-western-countries-push-back-2018-4?utm_source=markets&utm_medium=ingest>."
US officials have warned that Beijing is "weaponizing capital
<http://www.businessinsider.com/china-weaponizing-capital-us-navy-chief-awake-at-night-2018-3?utm_source=markets&utm_medium=ingest>"
through the initiative, and the International Monetary Fund has warned
China and its possible partners about deals that could create mounting debt
<http://www.businessinsider.com/china-influence-pacific-western-countries-push-back-2018-4?utm_source=markets&utm_medium=ingest>
..
[image: one belt one road land sea routes]Reuters
Japan has said its approach is distinct from the BRI in important ways,
according to Brewster, including its emphasis on safety, reliability,
social and environmental considerations, and on aligning with local
development goals and a broader rules-based order. Japan also includes
India as a partner and economic hub, whereas China's BRI avoids India.
India and Japan also announced the Asia-Africa Growth Corridor in May 2017
to further expand ties. It was supported by several African countries,
including South Africa, and is poised to be another alternative to China's
BRI. Beijing has tried to undercut it
<https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/60345807.cms>, pushing
India and South Africa to merge the project with the BRICS platform, which
would exclude Japan and dilute Delhi's influence.
There are doubts
<http://foreignpolicy.com/2018/02/09/japan-takes-the-lead-in-countering-chinas-belt-and-road/>
 about whether Japan has the resources to compete with China's
infrastructure push, and even though Japan has positioned its offerings as
alternatives to China's, Tokyo hasn't precluded future cooperation —
Japanese officials have even said
<https://thediplomat.com/2017/11/aimai-japans-ambiguous-approach-to-chinas-belt-and-road/>
 the BRI could ultimately benefit the global economy, depending on how it's
implemented.
But there is little doubt Tokyo and Delhi are have their eyes on countering
their bigger neighbor.
"Japan is concerned about a rising Chinese profile beyond the Western
Pacific, and India is equally concerned about the strategic implications of
China’s commercial engagements in its neighborhood," Darshana Baruah, an
analyst at Carnegie India, told Foreign Policy
<http://foreignpolicy.com/2018/02/09/japan-takes-the-lead-in-countering-chinas-belt-and-road/>
 earlier this year. “These projects are aimed at creating an alternative to
China's Belt and Road."

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