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By Ashutosh Patki Mar 28, 2023 12:58:44 PM IST (Updated)
Japan’s FOIP policy believes that a key for stability and prosperity in the international community is dynamism that is created by combining two continents — Asia and Africa — and two oceans — Pacific and Indian. It identifies piracy, terrorism, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), natural disasters and attempts to change the status quo as prominent challenges to the region.
"It gives me immense pleasure to return to the land where the dynamics of the world — the Pacific and the Indian Oceans — converge,” wrote Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in a column for the Indian Express as he embarked on his second visit to India as a chief of the country. The highlight of his short but significant tour was the announcement of a new plan to promote open and free Indo-Pacific, through which he pledged $75 billion to the region by 2030.
This billions of dollars in investment, which is considered to act as an ‘absolute pin’ against China’s assertiveness, will come from private investment and yen loans and also by increasing official governmental assistance and grants. Kishida also sought solidarity from countries of the ‘Global South’, a broad term referred to countries in Africa, Asia, Oceania and Latin America.
What is Japan’s Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP) concept?
Kishida, in his speech at the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA), titled ‘The Future of the Indo-Pacific-Japan’s New Plan for a ‘Free and Open Indo-Pacific-Together with India, as an Indispensable Partner’, announced four new pillars of FOIP.