Newsletter from the Ambassador of Japan to ASEAN No.7: How to formulate ASEAN-Japan Cooperation Projects
As we are now half-way through the year 2023 and in the course of the series of meetings and events, discussions are in full swing on the directions and contents of new ASEAN-Japan cooperation projects to be agreed and announced at the ASEAN-Japan Commemorative Summit at the end of the year. In this edition, Ambassador KIYA Masahiko introduces these meetings and events and discuss on how to formulate the ASEAN-Japan cooperation projects.
Based on several reports and announcements, such as the report compiled by Expert Panel for the 50th Year of ASEAN-Japan Friendship and Cooperation and the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific (AOIP) Mainstreaming Support announced by the Foreign Minister HAYASHI in February, a New Plan for a Free Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP) and an additional new USD 100 million contribution to the Japan-ASEAN Integration Fund (JAIF) announced by Prime Minister KISHIDA in March, “Future of Asia” speech by Prime Minister Kishida in May, and the Interim Report on ASEAN-Japan Economic Co-Creation Vision released by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) in June, we need to form cooperation projects to materialise the new vision in various fields with ASEAN.
In doing so, it is important to recognise ASEAN’s many partners and to make most of its own strengths to realise maximum impact. For the moment, it is important for Japan to play the role of a major partner based on its long-standing trust, technology and experience, with a focus on key issues in respective sectors, and to promote cooperation in an open manner in coordination with many other partners, with ASEAN at the centre.
