IEEJ：May ©IEEJ 2022
Special Bulletin
A Japanese Perspective on the International Energy Landscape (586)

May 25, 2022

Significant Japan-U.S. and Quad Cooperation in Maintaining and Enhancing
Global Governance
Ken Koyama, PhD
Chief Economist, Managing Director
The Institute of Energy Economics, Japan
When U.S. President Joe Biden visited Japan from May 22 through 25 for the first time since
his inauguration early last year, a Japan-U.S. summit and a Japan-U.S.-Australia-India Quadrilateral
Security Dialogue summit took place in Japan, attracting global attention. At a time when internationalpolitical, geopolitical and security situations were growing severer, these talks demonstrated thesignificance of enhancing strategic Japan-U.S. and Quad cooperation.
As the Ukraine crisis and war continue, the situation where Western countries support
Ukraine and enhance pressure on Russia is likely to be prolonged. In such situation, internationalenergy prices have remained high, bringing about great costs to the global economy and civic life. In
the meantime, the significance of long-term global initiatives to enhance climate change
countermeasures remains unchanged. There are many other important global challenges that Japan,
the United States and the Quad countries should tackle in cooperation with each other.
These summits in Japan indicated a basic policy of Japan, the United States and the Quadcountries to address the Ukraine crisis and other global issues while enhancing their cooperation andcollaboration. It was significant that these countries clarified their attitude of maintaining a basic
policy to reject an attempt to unilaterally change the status quo by force, while giving politicalconsiderations to India that has close political and military ties with Russia.
Regarding international politics, geopolitics and security, how to address the ongoing
Ukraine crisis undoubtedly became a focus of discussion at these summit talks. This was clarified byjoint statements issued after the summit talks. As indicated by the fact that the Japan-U.S. and Quadsummit talks were held in Japan, meanwhile, these talks also focused on strategic responses to China.
China has increased its presence in international politics, the global economy, and militaryand security fields and attracted global attention with its maritime expansion and coercive actions. TheUnited States has grown wary of China and deepened its recognition of China as its greatest challenger,
giving top priority to a strategy for competition with China. This policy trend became clear under the
Trump administration and has been taken over under the Biden administration, which has added avalue-based foreign policy approach giving priority to human rights and democracy. The former andincumbent presidents and administrations, Democrats and Republicans, and military and diplomaticestablishments have shared concerns about and a rivalry against China. The policy trend should beviewed as a long-term structural one that may be sustained irrespective of government changes.
The United States’ full-blown rivalry and competition against China has brought about aharsh U.S.-China confrontation called a “new U.S.-China cold war”. The Biden administration hasadopted a foreign policy strategy that gives priority to alliances and strategic partnerships inconfronting with China. Acknowledging that the United States is no longer the world’s policeman, theBiden administration intends to cooperate with U.S. allies in addressing key security and geopolitical1

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issues. In this respect, Japan and the United States now share a view that their alliance is an axis foraddressing Asian or Indo-Pacific issues. A Japan-U.S. joint leaders’ statement issued after the bilateralsummit noted that the Japan-U.S. alliance is extremely significant for strengthening deterrence andresponse capabilities. The statement also demonstrated Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’sdetermination to fundamentally reinforce Japan’s defense capabilities and secure a substantial increase
in its defense budget, as well as Biden’s support for the determination.
“We strongly oppose any coercive, provocative or unilateral actions that seek to change thestatus quo and increase tensions in the area,” reads a Quad joint leaders’ statement, reaffirming thefour countries’ cooperation and collaboration in contributing to stability in the Indo-Pacific region. It
was apparently significant for the Quad leaders to have confirmed that a new Australian Labor Party
government led by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, which was inaugurated just before the Quadsummit, would give priority to its participation in the Quad dialogue and its cooperation with Quadpartners.
The summit talks in Japan were extremely significant in that the Japan-U.S. alliance and theQuad framework were reaffirmed as important for maintaining and stabilizing global governance. The
emergence and escalation of the Ukraine crisis has led to a new situation in which the Western worldis required to address Russia and China issues simultaneously, forcing the United States to conduct
two-front operations. Japan-U.S. and Quad cooperation and collaboration are required to deepen torespond to the new geopolitical environment.
Various challenges threatening to destabilize the world were discussed at the summit talks,
including energy price hikes that are feared to destabilize the world. The Japan-U.S. joint leaders’statement noted that the two leaders welcomed efforts by the international community to secure stableenergy and food supplies, indicating that energy security has been positioned as a significant global
challenge under the Ukraine crisis. Regarding the tightening supply-demand balance and futuredestabilization of the international natural gas and liquefied natural gas market that attract attention as
the most critical energy issue under the Ukraine crisis, the statement remarkably pointed out that
Kishida emphasized the significant role U.S. LNG plays in alleviating global supply constraints andwelcomed investment by U.S. industry to increase oil and natural gas production.
To phase out dependence on Russia, the rest of the world is urgently required to secure nonRussian energy supply. In the natural gas and LNG market that is in the severest supply and demandsituation, U.S. LNG that features flexible supply and has led global supply growth has been globally
recognized as significant. Investment in upstream and other natural gas sectors is required to be
secured and expanded to increase LNG supply. If Germany and other European countries try to procure
non-Russian natural gas and LNG in the absence of overall supply expansion, they and major Asian
gas-consuming countries may have to play a zero-sum game or a race to procure natural gas and LNG.
Investment to expand U.S. supply may not only help stabilize energy markets but also allow the UnitedStates to contribute to maintaining global energy governance.
As energy security has been rapidly highlighted as important under the Ukraine crisis, theJapan-U.S. joint leaders’ statement noted that the two leaders recognized the importance of nuclear
energy and committed to greater nuclear energy collaboration and to accelerating the development andglobal deployment of advanced and small modular reactors. It also pointed out that the Japanese andU.S. leaders also shared their intention to explore an initiative to provide Asian partners with support
for strengthening their energy security and welcomed the establishment of the Japan-U.S. Clean
Energy and Energy Security Initiative (CEESI) to achieve both energy security and net-zero emissions.
The statement thus demonstrated to the world that it is significant to strengthen Japan-U.S. cooperation
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in enhancing energy measures in various aspects. Initiatives led by Japan and the United States tomaintain and enhance global governance and global energy governance will attract attention
increasingly.

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