EU-Japan tryst is a sign of shifting geopolitical times
Summit on Tuesday comes as both powers seek solace in the face of tensions with China and the US
EU leaders will hold on Tuesday their first bilateral summit since the coronavirus pandemic began — and their partner’s identity highlights a changing world order.
European Council president Charles Michel and his European Commission counterpart Ursula von der Leyen will log on with Shinzo Abe, Japan’s prime minister, to buttress an alliance made more crucial by tensions with both China and the US.
The online parley is part of EU efforts to work with like-minded powers in support of the multilateral system in the face of an increasingly forceful Beijing and a nativist Washington. It will kick off an intense few days of geopolitics for the European bloc, as foreign ministers prepare to meet on Friday with China and its crackdown in Hong Kong likely to be high on the agenda.
“We need a more robust strategy for China, which also requires better relations with the rest of democratic Asia,” Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign policy chief, told an annual conference of German ambassadors in Berlin on Monday. “That’s why we must invest more in working with India, Japan, South Korea, et cetera.”
The EU-Japan call on Tuesday will focus on the international response to the pandemic and the strategic partnership between the two powers. EU officials are keen to promote the co-operation as substantial and growing, with bilateral trade rising 5.8 per cent last year after the signing of a trade agreement. The EU and Japan co-operated last week to push a resolution endorsed by World Health Organization members that calls for global access to a coronavirus vaccine and for a probe into the pathogen’s origins.
The EU and Japan also signed an ambitious deal in September to build infrastructure and set development standards in joint projects around the world, in a riposte to China’s contentious Belt and Road Initiative. Mr Abe has called the growing co-operation between Brussels and Tokyo a “resounding declaration” at a time when “the values and principles we have held dear could waver or drift”.
The question is where the relationship goes from here. It is likely to be some time before the initiative unveiled in September will yield big results, especially given the disruption caused by the pandemic.
Tuesday’s talks are only scheduled to last an hour and are unlikely to delve deeply into geopolitical developments or more contentious points in the EU-Japan relationship, such as investment. The commission’s website page on Japan notes obliquely that “doing business or investing can be challenging for European companies due to the features of Japanese society and Japan’s economy”.
Progress on such matters will probably have to wait for a face-to-face summit in Tokyo when such events are possible again. Until then, a show of telesolidarity would provide both sides with at least brief respite from the turmoil of dealing with Beijing and Washington.