By J. Berkshire Miller
With few diplomatic openings in East Asia, Tokyo has been busy forging ties with Ankara.
The dearth of diplomacy in Northeast Asia since Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe took office in December 2012 has presented Tokyo with a more flexible calendar for international courtships. Much of Abe’s first year focused on improving ties with ASEAN (indeed he visited every country in the organization) and India. These engagements, together with Japan’s renewed push to resolve decades-old disputes with Russia, have largely been interpreted as an overt hedge against China’s growing power in the region. Much of this interpretation is correct, but there is a more multifaceted element to Abe’s diplomatic agenda that should not be shrouded by the acute tensions between Japan and China.
One area representative of this dynamism is Japan’s efforts to pursue stronger relations with Turkey, demonstrated through a host of Japanese investments in the country’s growing civil nuclear program and transportation infrastructure projects. Abe has put an unusual amount of effort into bolstering the relationship with Ankara through two separate trips to the country since taking office. Abe also welcomed Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Japan this past January. The rapid expansion in Japan-Turkey ties is even more dramatic, given that Ankara was all but ignored by Tokyo in the five years between the Abe 1.0 and Abe 2.0 administrations. Indeed, the last Japanese Prime Minister to visit Turkey (before Abe) was former LDP leader Junichiro Koizumi.
Read the full story at The Diplomat