The emerging power play in the Mekong subregion: a Japanese perspective

• Main Author: Koga, Kei
• Other Authors: School of Social Sciences
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2022
• Subjects: Social sciences::Political science; Mekong Subregion; Japanese Perspective
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/162506
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

As one of the most active development donors in Southeast Asia, Japan has committed to socioeconomic development in the Mekong subregion since the end of the Cold War. However, as the Sino-U.S. rivalry intensifies, socioeconomic development in Asia, including the Mekong subregion, has become a theater for strategic competition. In 2013, China initiated the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), raising its economic and political influence in the region through massive development assistance. For its part, Japan launched the Partnership for Quality Infrastructure (PQI) in 2015 to boost its assistance to Asia, and Tokyo strengthened its development cooperation with like-minded partners, particularly the United States, by establishing joint frameworks such as the OPIC-JBIC-Australia agreement on development finance in 2018 and the Blue Dot Network in 2019.