Japan seeks to counter China's expansion in Southeast Asia

Japan seeks to counter China's expansion in Southeast Asia

P. Parameswaran, Agence France-Presse, Nusa Dua, Bali

Japan wants to widen its largely business-oriented ties with Southeast Asia to counter China's aggressive political, economic and security forays but the region is playing hard to get.

At a summit meeting on Indonesia's Bali resort island this week, China is set to sign three key pacts with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), including a "strategic" tie- up accord that has raised the eyebrows of many analysts.

The ASEAN-China Declaration on Strategic Partnership, to be signed by Prime Minister Wen Jiabao and his counterparts from the 10 ASEAN member states, will elevate cooperation to "a higher and more comprehensive dimension," an ASEAN official said.

"This is the first time ASEAN is calling an agreement with any of its dialogue partners as strategic -- strategic in the sense that it is all-encompassing cooperation," the official added.

Aside from the pact, China will sign documents acceding to the ASEAN Treaty of Amity and Cooperation -- effectively a non- aggression pact -- and endorse a protocol that will give several Southeast Asian states early benefits under a free trade area to be jointly developed by 2010.

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi meanwhile has only one agreement scheduled for signing with the ASEAN leaders -- the Framework for Comprehensive Economic Partnership -- aimed at strengthening linkages with a provision for a joint free trade area sometime in the future, officials said.

To match the giant strides taken by China to improve ties with Southeast Asia, Tokyo has proposed an ASEAN-Japan Charter to upgrade relations befitting Japan's status as top investor and importer in the region, officials said.

The charter would be a "basic political document with basic principles of cooperation accompanied by precise actions reflecting strong solidarity between ASEAN and Japan" said Hitoshi Tanaka, a senior Japanese official attending the summit talks.

But many ASEAN states have expressed caution over the proposed agreement. Japan wants it signed when all 10 Southeast Asian leaders travel to Tokyo for a summit with Koizumi in December to commemorate the 30th anniversary of relations between the region and the world's second biggest economy.

"Charter is a very exalted word," Philippine Foreign Secretary Blas Ople said, citing the United Nations charter as an example.

"This is viewed with reservations on the part of ASEAN because (having) a charter with Japan will give a right for other powers to have their own charter with us," he said.

Ople said ASEAN was exploring "what Japan can offer us to deserve the case for a charter."

With impending elections in Japan, analysts say Koizumi wants to show his people that Tokyo is not lagging behind China in relations with Southeast Asia, whose progress has been fueled mostly by Japanese investment.

Makarim Wibisono, a senior Indonesian foreign ministry official, indicated that at the Tokyo talks, ASEAN would prod Japan further to open its market to goods from the region and increase financial help to bridge the "development gap" between ASEAN and Japan.

While it cannot be doubted that Southeast Asia had been riding on Japan as its key market, China is slowly catching up as it rapidly absorbs imports from the region.

"We couldn't have come so far without Japan but a new momentum needs to be injected into our relationship and the ASEAN-Japan commemorative summit in December will provide the window of opportunity for doing precisely that," said Sundram Pushpanathan, ASEAN's head of external relations.

He played down suggestions that ASEAN was trying to extract more gains from Japan by using the China card, saying: "We are not playing any games here.

"While ASEAN wants to enhance relations with China, it is also working to enhance relations with key partners, like Japan, the European Union and the United States. It is a win-win situation for all sides."

Chinese vice foreign minister Wang Yi said Beijing was stepping up relations with Southeast Asia because it trusted ASEAN. "We are always supportive of ASEAN," he said.