Germany-India-Japan and a Free and Open Indo-PacificKai Schulze

ASIEN – Nr. 148 (2018) pp. 93–95

Berlin, March 28, 2018

On Monday, March 12, 2018 the Japanese-German Center Berlin (JDZB) invited to a conference on “Germany-India-Japan and a Free and Open Indo-Pacific”. It broached the issue of Japan’s “Free and Open Indo-Pacific” (FOIP) initiative, announced by Prime Minister of Japan Abe Shinzô in August 2016, which includes cooperation between Japan, the United States, Australia and India, and is widely evaluated as an attempt to counterbalance China’s “Belt and Road” initiative (BRI). Against this backdrop, the conference aimed at elucidating the questions: What interest could Germany have to support the FOIP project? Will this project eventually become a security cooperation or will it remain political and economy-based? How will China react and will it be possible to integrate China into the FOIP framework?