International diplomacy over the past week has been a study in contrasts: from Washington, inconsistent messaging and stop-start measures to resolve the crisis in Iran; from the Indo-Pacific, clarity of purpose by leaders looking to shore up ties with regional partners around shared interests.
On May 1, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi touched down in Vietnam for a three-day visit that culminated in agreements on space, digital transformation, and green growth.
In 2023, the two countries upgraded their relationship to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, and Japan is one of Vietnam’s largest foreign investors and its biggest single source of overseas development assistance.
Hanoi will tap into Japan’s new Partnership on Wide Energy and Resources Resilience – a US$10-billion initiative to assist allies in Asia impacted by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
Takaichi used her visit to Vietnam to deliver a major foreign policy speechmarking 10 years since the unveiling of Japan’s vision of a ‘Free and Open Indo-Pacific.’ Her remarks underscored how far Tokyo’s thinking has evolved; Takaichi vowed that Japan would “play an even more proactive role than ever before in building an international order based on freedom, openness, diversity, inclusiveness, and the rule of law,” including assisting regional allies in strengthening their maritime security.
According to Bloomberg, the decision to give the speech in Vietnam may have been strategic, as Vietnam, like Japan, has confronted China over maritime borders.
Japan Courts Australia
Takaichi had a similar message for Australia, where, in a meeting in Canberra with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on May 4, the two signed an agreementon energy, defence, and critical minerals co-operation. Takaichi pointed to the “unprecedented strategic alignment” between the two countries and their growing “importance to each other’s strategic depth.”
Signs of that importance are not difficult to spot: Australia provides roughly 40 per cent of Japan’s liquified natural gas imports, and Japan recently inched past the U.K. to become Australia’s second-largest foreign investor – trailing the U.S., but nearly tripling the level of Chinese investment, which has flatlined since 2019.
Australia and Japan also inked a new Strategic Cyber Partnership for closer and more regular information-sharing between their public and private sectors.
Vietnam Woos India
Vietnam’s president To Lam, meanwhile, embarked on a bilateral mission of his own with a three-day state visit to India starting May 5, a decade after the two countries signed a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Agreement.
On Wednesday, he met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, buoyant after his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) notched recent state-level electoral wins, including in the erstwhile holdout of West Bengal. These victories buttress an important comeback story following the BJP’s disappointing performance in the 2024 general election.
Separately, Singapore and New Zealand signed a first-of-its-kind Agreement on Trade in Essential Supplies on Monday, described as the world’s first “bilateral supply chain deal” to keep goods such as fuel, food, and other critical supplies “flowing freely between the two countries,” even “in times of crisis or shortages.”
Ottawa is no doubt taking note of these growing webs of Indo-Pacific connectivity. Initiatives to build more resilient regional networks in the face of geopolitical flux, supply chain disruption, and deepening uncertainty about Washington’s reliability resonate with the kind of middle-power and minilateral diplomacy Prime Minister Mark Carney is trying to advance for Canada.
