EU-Japan security cooperation following Russia's war in Ukraine

In collaboration with the Embassy of Japan to Italy, the Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI) in Rome is organizing a one-day event comprising a morning closed door Track 1.5 Dialogue and an afternoon public workshop. This one-day even will bring together security practitioners and major experts from both Europe and Japan to analyse the implications of the War in Ukraine for further, realistic security cooperation opportunities between Japan and the European Union.

Will European priorities lie in a cooperation with countries with an Indo-Pacific strategy, or in a ‘third way’, evading the potential ruptures of Sino-American strategic competition? And will Europeans accordingly only consider multilateralism, as open as possible, even if its quality will suffer, or will it increasingly engage with mini-lateral cooperation possibilities, such as the Quad, the so-called D10 or even the NATO alliance? What role can the Union realistically play in a crisis scenario in the region, for instance across the Taiwan Strait, one of the major flashpoints for regional conflict?

More importantly, what are the prospects for a sustained European engagement on the security and commercial fronts in the Indo-Pacific? And vice-versa what about Japan’s engagement in European security? The sustainability of maritime engagement is debated, in light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its aftermath, the political divisions within the EU, and the US military repositioning in the IndoPacific. Last but least, what role for Italy?

After all, the Mediterranean, Middle East, and Eastern Europe remain the main strategic priorities for Italy and the whole of Europe.