As addresses by foreign leaders go, Shinzo Abe’s was less than rousing. Bibi Netanyahu got more ovations per paragraph than Mr Abe’s entire speech. But the Japanese prime minister’s agenda has a higher chance of success. His speech — the first by a Japanese leader to both houses of Congress — had two explicit aims. The first was to talk up the US military rebalancing to Asia. The second was to boost chances of a conclusion to theTrans-Pacific Partnership. To judge by what he said, Mr Abe is making more progress on the military dimension. He offered among the most robust endorsements by any Asian leader of Barack Obama’s “pivot to Asia”.
Though Mr Abe never said “China” or “containment”, strengthening the US-Japan hedge against a rising China was his implicit theme. Yet he was far more specific on the military details of how that would be accomplished. Those among sceptical US lawmakers looking for detailed pledges from Japan on dismantling barriers to American beef, rice or vehicles would have been disappointed. Mr Abe added nothing to the vague pledges he and Mr Obama used in their White House press conference on Tuesday. There had been a hope that Mr Abe’s US trip would push the TPP talks towards a clinching moment. His speech will only add to the concern that we are still awaiting breakthroughs on TPP. Mr Abe’s most notable comment was a veiled reference to China when he said the 12-nation deal should build a market “free from the arbitrary intentions of any nation”.
Mr Abe was far more direct about the demand for more US military hardware than he was about its goods and services. In this respect, he was continuing in the tradition of his predecessors. Yet there was a far more militaristic tinge to his narrative. Japan, he said, would support America’s Asia rebalancing “first, last and throughout”. He set out in detail his efforts to water down the US-framed Japanese constitution to permit its self-defence forces a more overt role. Japan would build a new “credible deterrence” that would enable it to co-operate more fully with US forces in the region. It would pump money into an upgrade of the US base in Guam (more than $2bn). Tokyo was also deepening military ties with India and Australia, which are the two of the largest bulwarks against China’s creeping expansionism. He also set out his principles on the “state of Asian waters” — a response to Beijing’s hyperactivity in the South China Sea.