ABSTRACT
Under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Japan actively engaged with Southeast Asia by promoting universal values and giving special attention to security and defense through economic instruments and continued its role in developing the economies of this region. Policy promotion within the region contributed to helping Japan achieve the goal of ensuring security and sovereignty and helped Japan improve its position in the international arena. Accordingly, Southeast Asia was considered a strategic deployment area. Abe’s understanding of this region’s changing dynamics and complexion resulted in a vision that promoted rules-based order and stability through strategic, economic, and infrastructure cooperation. As this crystalized into the “Free and Open Indo-Pacific” concept, the major partnership was to emerge in the Southeast Asian region, as it harbors massive Sea Lanes of Communication and is also a significant production hub. Vietnam-Japan relations blossomed in this environment as Vietnam’s domestic concerns found synergy with Japan’s approach toward the southeast in general and Vietnam in particular. Engagement with Vietnam strengthened through both multilateral and bilateral cooperation. This chapter provides an overview of Japan’s relationship with Southeast Asian nations with specific reference to Vietnam.
