Japan wants a more united and proactive Southeast Asia as it sees Asean as a bulwark against an intensifying great-power rivalry, analysts say, while uncertainty over Washington’s long-term Indo-Pacific strategy has deepened Tokyo’s concerns about the region’s future.
Japanese Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi on Wednesday urged Southeast Asian nations to strengthen their collective response to emerging security threats, warning of a “rapidly deteriorating” security environment and shifts in the regional military balance that raised the risk of “dangerous miscalculations”.
“These crises do not merely adapt. They overlap and amplify one another,” Koizumi said at the Asean-Japan Defence Ministers’ Informal Meeting in Cebu.