The Research Institute for Peace and Security (RIPS) hosted this webinar to discuss in-depth the current maritime security challenges in East Asia.
East Asia is a large seascape. As Japan and other regional countries depend much on the maritime space for their survival and prosperity, it is critically important to maintain the rules-based maritime international order. The most serious challenge is China’s maritime expansion in the absence of any overarching regionwide multilateral security framework. China tries to alter the status quo not only by the PLA Navy but also by its maritime law-enforcement organization and by maritime militia under the disguise of civilian fishermen. China’s coercive activities in the vicinity of Japan’s Senkaku Islands as well as in the South China Sea have been continuing.
As East Asia is at the forefront of the great power competition, the regional security environment will continue to be volatile and unstable. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has also been casting a long shadow on East Asia as well by swaying the rules-based international order.
In this situation, it is increasingly important for the international community to share the correct recognition on the East Asian security environment and also to be reminded of the importance of the principle of the rule of law. Creation of a number of emerging minilateral initiatives in the Indo-Pacific region such as the Quad and AUKUS is noteworthy in this context. How to generate synergy of these initiatives by intertwining all of them will be an important challenge for all the relevant regional and extra-regional actors.
With these as the backdrop, this webinar looked into the impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on the East Asian reginal security as well as the Beijing’s grand strategic objectives in the maritime realm. Based on shared recognition on these points among the experts, the webinar addressed how we should and can address those serious challenges; is synergy of the vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific (FOIP), which the Quad is promoting, and the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific (AOIP), which the ASEAN is promoting expected for maritime security? What is the future of the regional security architecture, including the roles of US alliance network, the Quad, AUKUS, ARF, ADMM?
Four prominent experts from Belgium, the Philippines, Indonesia and Japan discussed these issues. The experts are;
– Dr. Eva Pejsova, Japan Chair, Centre for Security, Diplomacy and Strategy of the Brussels School of Governance (BSoG-VUB)
– Prof. Renato de Castro, Professor, De la Salle University
– Dr. Shafiah F. Muhibat, Deputy Executive Director for Research, CSIS Indonesia
– RADM (ret.) YAMAMOTO Katsuya, JMSDF, Senior Research Fellow, The Sasakawa Peace Foundation, Security Studies Program.
Professor Hideshi Tokuchi, President of the Research Institute for Peace and Security (RIPS), moderated the webinar.
