The Indo-Pacific has rapidly risen as the Biden administration’s central regional concept by advancing a set of America’s political, defence, economic and technological interests. A feature of the US engagement in the Indo-Pacific region is its intention to fully utilise and develop some new multilateral settings such as FOIP, Quad, and AUKUS, and a common element the Biden administration has attached to the Indo-Pacific multilateralism is the primacy of partnerships with its traditional allies and reliable like-minded states. Symbolically, the universal values of freedom, democracy, human rights, and the rule of law function as a political foundation for the institutionalisation of these multilateral frameworks. Growingly developing their bilateral cooperation in regional economic, security and political affairs, India and Japan, as America’s key Indo-Pacific partners, are viewed playing an essential role in the institutionalisation process.
This seminar aims to examine the “role” to be taken by India and Japan, individually or collectively, for the possible institutionalisation of Indo-Pacific multilateralism. The first session focuses on the security-defence institutionalisation, and some key questions to be addressed include what India and Japan can do for the development of FOIP and Quad, and whether they can possibly participate in the AUKUS, which Kurt Campbell labelled ‘open architecture’ with the US expectation of other states in Asia and Europe to join with over time. The second session examines role of India and Japan in the Indo-Pacific economic institutions, and some key questions include how the ‘Supply Chain Resilience Initiative (SCRI)’ among Australia, India and Japan can be strengthened, what Japan can do for India’s possible return to RCEP, or how Chia’s geo-economic tactics like its debt-trap diplomacy can be dealt with through the institutionalisation of FOIP.
12:00 – 12:10 p.m. | Opening Remarks | Watanabe Mayu and Sunjoy Joshi
12:10 – 12:50 p.m. | Session 1: Characteristics and Prospects of Japan and India’s Geo-economic Strategies in Quad
Keynote Speeches | Kanehara Nobukatsu and Deepa Gopalan Wadhwa
Comments | Bhubhindar Singh, Masuo Chisako and Pratnashree Basu
12:50 – 1:30 p.m. | Session 2: How Should FOIP be Developed from a Geo-economic Perspective?
Keynote Speeches | Mihir Swarup Sharma and Terada Takashi
Comments | Amitendu Palit, Kawai Masahiro, and Shashank Mattoo
1:30 – 2:10 p.m. | Q&A
2:10 – 2:15 p.m. | Closing Remarks | Terada Takashi
