Posted on 07/05/2023 8:29:16 PM PDT by FarCenter
TOKYO -- Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has a packed diplomatic calendar taking him to regions including the Middle East and Southeast Asia, where Tokyo aims to supplement a weak U.S. presence by focusing on economic ties over values such as democracy and human rights.
Kishida will visit Europe from Tuesday, then return home briefly before traveling to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar from July 16 to July 19. This marks the start of a string of diplomatic engagements running into the end of the year.
This will be Kishida's first trip to the Middle East as prime minister. "In addition to pursuing resource diplomacy, Japan will contribute more to the region amid an increasingly complex international situation," the prime minister told senior officials from his Liberal Democratic Party on June 27.
As Washington's relationship with Riyadh frays over human rights, waning U.S. influence in the region has left room for China to maneuver. Beijing brokered a deal in March to restore ties between Saudi Arabia and Iran, and Chinese President Xi Jinping met in June with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, saying Beijing is prepared to play a "positive role" in promoting peace talks with Israel.
As a country that relies on the Middle East for more than 90% of its energy needs, Japan cannot ignore China's growing clout in the region.
Kishida's diplomatic tack in the Middle East puts the economy front and center while avoiding highlighting differences over values. A delegation of Japanese business leaders will accompany him on the trip.
Saudi Arabia is working to diversify its industrial landscape and reduce its economic dependence on oil -- a development that Kishida's government, which has made decarbonization a central piece of its growth strategy, sees as a good opportunity for cooperation.
The prime minister's plan for a "free and open Indo-Pacific" released in March emphasizes cooperative relationships on an equal footing and what he calls a "spirit of co-creation" that does not impose values on each other. This approach is likely to be palatable to emerging economies trying to find their footing between Washington and Beijing.
Japan's dynamic with Southeast Asia is similar.
These countries generally loathe and fear everything the West now stands for. These are traditional societies that want nothing to do with the West’s woke, green, pervo globalism. That’s why they are fleeing in droves for the protection of BRIChinaS+.
Maybe letting Japan have a Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere wouldn’t be such a bad idea this time around.
Japan needs to announce to the world, yesterday, their de facto deployment of an independent, guaranteed nuclear retaliatory capability. A Japanese finger on a Japanese bomb. There are no other guarantees in this new post American international reality.
It’s strange how the evangelical zeal of earlier generations of colonial Christian missionaries to convert the whole world has been adopted by the post-Christian emissaries of the new Western values.
They are no more welcome.
Yeah well, we support democracy by supporting corrupt autocratic thugs, and we don't even support basic freedoms that the UN declaration of human rights recognizes, including:
Article 18
Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.
Article 19
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
Article 20
Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.No one may be compelled to belong to an association.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.