Japan, which does not want to be a regional power, has been looking for opportunities to expand its influence beyond East Asia. According to Japanese media reports, Japan-ASEAN recently held a special summit, and the two sides issued a joint statement, saying that they would strengthen cooperation in the field of maritime security, and in the economic field, the two sides focused on the new generation of vehicle cooperation, including electric vehicles.
It is worth noting that the joint statement of the two sides said that they promoted "the establishment of a free and open Indo-Pacific" and "respected territorial integrity", but the joint statement did not name China and Russia. One of the main themes of the Japan-ASEAN Special Summit is the issue of maritime security. The Philippines in ASEAN maintains close ties with Japan, which provides the Philippines with large maritime patrol vessels, but Japan rarely fails to mention China in such an important bilateral joint statement.
In fact, the fact that the two sides only talk about cooperation and do not talk about China and Russia shows that ASEAN countries do not want to choose sides and confront China, and ASEAN countries only want to maintain development. Japanese media said that Japan will formulate a common strategy with ASEAN to strive for the regional market. In other words, Japan wants to compete with China through economic cooperation, not to counter China through security cooperation.
Of course, Japan has a strategic intention in doing so. On the one hand, Japan recognizes that the ASEAN market is a market with huge potential, and if Japan wants to maintain its development, it can only expand the market and seek cooperation. On the other hand, it will never take advantage of the fact that ASEAN countries are being co-opted to confront China. Japan is inferior to China's influence on ASEAN, and once ASEAN countries decouple from China, it will only affect their own development. Japan's co-opting ASEAN countries to confront them will only arouse ASEAN's resentment.
When Japan and ASEAN cooperated, Thailand began to extend an olive branch to Japan. According to Thai Transport Minister Surya told Japanese investors, Thailand plans to open international bidding for the Kra Isthmus "land bridge" project, which will invest more than $20 billion, and once completed, it will avoid the passage of the Strait of Malacca, bring convenience to Asian countries, and be more beneficial to Japan's transportation of goods and energy. You must know that the oil resources needed for Japan's development come from the Middle East, and its dependence on foreign energy is extremely high, which makes Japan extremely dependent on the Strait of Malacca channel. Thailand's Kra Isthmus is a natural passage that, once opened, can connect the Pacific Ocean to the Indian Ocean, greatly reducing shipping distances.
In order to attract foreign investment, Thailand claims that the winning consortium will be granted a special right to operate for 50 years, and will operate projects including shipping port companies, logistics, and real estate development. However, the project was opposed within Thailand and Singapore. Japan faces a number of challenges if it wants to win the project alone. Thailand wants Japan to invest in the project, and Japan may want to consider the return on investment.
Japan is a regional power, and only by maintaining peaceful development can it be elected, and if Japan relies on the United States to form a gang to provoke China, then it will naturally arouse the disgust of neighboring countries!