Japan and Central Asia will hold their first summit. Experts: Even if Japan can demonstrate its diplomatic influence, it will be difficult to achieve immediate results
2024-08-07
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[Global Times Special Correspondent Wang Hui, Global Times Reporter Xu Keyue] From August 9 to 11, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will lead about 50 Japanese business representatives to visit Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, and will attend the Japan-Central Asian Five Countries Summit held in Kazakhstan. Japan's Fuji News Network said that this is the first leaders' summit since Japan and the five Central Asian countries established a dialogue mechanism in 2004. In recent days, Japanese media have disclosed the content of the summit.
According to the Nikkei report on the 6th, Fumio Kishida will announce more than 200 business cooperation items during his visit to Central Asia, including cooperation in areas such as "decarbonization" and digitalization. Japan's Sumitomo Corporation is considering participating in large-scale wind and solar power generation projects, while NEC and other companies plan to join the data center business. The Japanese government will also establish a new guarantee mechanism of 300 billion yen in the Nippon Export-Import Insurance Corporation (NEXI) to reduce trade and investment risks and support Japanese companies in carrying out new projects in Central Asia.
According to Fuji News Network on the 5th, Kishida will also hold talks with the leaders of the five Central Asian countries during the summit and express his willingness to deepen cooperation. In the joint statement of the summit between Japan and the five Central Asian leaders, it will be emphasized that the two sides are "partners in maintaining and strengthening a free and open international order based on the rule of law", and it will be clearly written into cooperation to achieve a "nuclear-free world". According to Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun on the 4th, the draft joint statement of the summit between Japan and the five Central Asian leaders also shows that in view of Russia's "invasion" of Ukraine, the two sides will "commit to abide by the principles of the UN Charter, including respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, and prohibition of the threat or use of force." The Yomiuri Shimbun analyzed that as China and Russia increase their participation in the Central Asian region, Japan is ensuring its presence in the region out of concern for China.
Da Zhigang, a researcher at the Institute of Northeast Asian Studies of the Heilongjiang Academy of Social Sciences, said in an interview with the Global Times on the 6th that the five Central Asian countries are considered to have close relations with Russia and are also strategic nodes of China's joint construction of the "Belt and Road" initiative. If Japan can demonstrate its diplomatic influence in the five Central Asian countries, it will be equivalent to driving a wedge. Da Zhigang mentioned that when Japan cooperated with many regions in the world, including Southeast Asia, it always followed the routine of breaking through from the economic aspect and gradually infiltrating geography and security with the economy. However, Central Asian countries will also engage in balanced diplomacy. In terms of economic and trade cooperation, China's achievements in the construction of logistics channels and infrastructure in the five Central Asian countries over the years, as well as the level and degree of dependence of the five Central Asian countries on China in economic and trade cooperation, all mean that even if Japan drives a wedge, it will be difficult to achieve immediate results.
