Infrastructure projects are one of Japan and China’s main priorities, with each having come up with their own initiative: Japan the Partnership for Quality Infrastructure and China the Belt and Road Initiative. The BRI is well known around the globe, while the Partnership for Quality Infrastructure aims to provide together with “the Asian Development Bank (ADB), approximately $110 billion for quality infrastructure investment in Asia from 2016 to 2020”. An extended version of this project, named the Expanded Partnership for Quality Infrastructure wants “to provide financing of approximately $200 billion from 2017 to 2021 to be allocated to infrastructure projects across the world.”
Then in 2017, at India’s invitation, Japan agreed to develop the Asia-Africa Growth Corridor (AAGC), a maritime route that would be the rival of China’s 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. Pledging to be an environmental friendly project, the AAGC plans to connect ports in Jamnagar (Gujarat, India) with Djibouti; the ports of Mombasa and Zanzibar with ports near Madurai (Tamil Nadu, India); and the port of Kolkata to that of Sittwe in Myanmar. The AAGC also seems to be a doppelgänger of the “String of Pearls,” which is an American-coined concept referring to China’s strategy to build ports along the Indian Ocean coast.
Apart for focusing on the Indian Ocean, the AAGC’s goals are also “to build robust institutional, industrial and transport infrastructure in growth poles among countries in Asia and Africa” with the main purpose being to integrate Asia and Africa into the Japanese-Indian bloc.
Japan’s interest in infrastructure in Asia can be seen not only through the Partnership for Quality Infrastructure and the AAGC, but also through the trilateral partnership that it signed with Australia and the United States in order to invest in infrastructure in Asia. The trilateral partnership aims to spread peace in the Indo-Pacific region and to achieve that aim, the main investments will be focused on energy, transportation, tourism, and technology infrastructure.
Together with the Asia-Africa Growth Corridor, the trilateral partnership wants to counter China’s presence in the Indo-Pacific region and to increase Japan’s influence in the region. As a result, Africa and the Indian Ocean became important focus points of Japan’s foreign policy.
By signaling its interest in cooperation with China, Japan has diversified its approaches to infrastructure in Asia, Africa, and the Indo-Pacific region. Abe’s interest to position Japan as a node in the region is exemplified by his recent meetings with both Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which took place in less than a week. Japan is no longer working just to counter China’s Belt and Road, but to increase its presence in the infrastructure development sector, willing to partner with any country.
Although Japan is now both competing against and collaborating with China and its BRI, the steps that Shinzo Abe has taken may bring peace into the region and may enable Japan to strengthen its presence in the Asia-Pacific region.
This article has been published by Andreea Brinza in The Diplomat.