Opinion | Ukraine war is creating new fault lines in Asia as Singapore, South Korea and India shift positions
- The seemingly faraway conflict in Europe is rearranging partnerships in Asia, as Singapore and South Korea close ranks with the US while India resists pressure to cut trade ties with Russia
- These shifting stances will have consequences for the way the US, China and others approach security in the region
“I envisage a strategy whereby Australia, India, Japan, and the US … form a diamond to safeguard the maritime commons stretching from the Indian Ocean region to the western Pacific,” declared then Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe in an oft-cited essay upon his return to power in the early-2010s.
Specifically, the Japanese leader called on the four like-minded powers to ensure China doesn’t become the dominant maritime power in adjacent waters. As Abe bluntly put it, his proposed “security diamond” should jointly prevent vital sea-lanes of communications such as the South China Sea from turning into “Lake Beijing”.
To this end, Abe played a critical role in mainstreaming the “Indo-Pacific” geopolitical paradigm, which placed India at the heart of an emerging alliance against a resurgent China. Abe’s proteges at home as well as the Trump and Biden administrations in Washington have largely embraced Abe’s strategic vision in recent years.
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