Germany's Indo-Pacific Strategy and Expectations for Strengthened Cooperation with Japan

The 'Indo-Pacific Guidelines' recently announced by the German government outlined Germany's basic foreign policy direction in the Indo-Pacific region, with the support of a rules-based international economic order as a key policy objective. This stemmed from concerns about a system overly reliant on a specific country economically.

China is Germany's largest trading partner, accounting for about 50% of its total trade volume. However, with the intensification of US-China competition, Germany can no longer solely focus on cooperation with China. The need to explore diverse partners for cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region has emerged across political, economic, and security aspects.

Accordingly, Germany has identified the digital sector as a key area where it anticipates close collaboration with Japan. This is due to the significant synergy between Japan's Society 5.0 policy and Germany's Industry 4.0 policy. Notably, Germany emphasized the need for both countries to appropriately reflect the values of personal information protection and a human-centric approach in the standardization and technological development of the digital sector.

Furthermore, the possibility of collaboration between businesses from both countries is considered significant in the infrastructure market. With Asia's infrastructure investment projected to reach $1.7 trillion annually over the next 30 years, there is a need for both countries to collaborate and strengthen their position in the Asian infrastructure market in response to China's Belt and Road Initiative. Japan and the EU already signed a partnership in 2019 for the development of sustainable and high-quality infrastructure.

Addressing environmental issues is another crucial task for the German government and businesses. Germany hopes to collaborate with Japan in advanced environmental technologies, such as renewable energy, to contribute to solving global challenges. In the ASEAN region, they see potential for collaboration in biodiversity conservation and urban development challenges.

In essence, Germany's Indo-Pacific strategy prioritizes upholding a rules-based international economic order while considering Japan as a key partner. Notably, the strategy emphasizes bilateral cooperation in the digital, infrastructure, and environmental sectors. It remains to be seen whether both countries can materialize concrete collaborative projects in areas of shared strategic interests.