Analysis | Shinzo Abe assassination: From Singapore to India, tributes flow for ardent champion of ‘free and open Indo-Pacific’
- His stint as premier saw Japan deepen the goodwill it had carefully rebuilt in Southeast Asia following the painful memories of WWII
- As far back as 2007, he floated his idea of a ‘broader Asia’ encompassing countries in both the Pacific and Indian Ocean regions
The assassinated former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe was a central figure in his country’s politics but also left a strong legacy across Asia. His main achievement was redirecting Tokyo towards taking a more proactive role in the region and forging ahead with an important trade pact after the US abandoned it, analysts say.
In Southeast Asia, in particular, Abe’s 2012-2020 stint as premier saw Japan deepen the goodwill it had assiduously rebuilt in the region following the painful memories of the second world war, observers said.
Nonetheless, the Abe administration’s strained relationship with South Korea – Japan’s closest neighbour and ex-colony – revealed the flaws in his foreign policy.
Tomoo Kikuchi, an associate professor at the Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies in Japan’s Waseda University said Abe made the so-called “Indo-Pacific” a strategic concept not only for Japan and the United States but also Southeast Asian nations.
As far back as 2007, during his short-lived first stint as premier, Abe floated his idea of a “broader Asia” encompassing countries in both the Pacific and Indian Ocean regions.
In a special address to India’s parliament, he said it was incumbent upon democracies like India, Japan and Australia – along with the US – to forge a network that “will allow people, goods, capital, and knowledge to flow freely”.