A counter-narrative to China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has yet to arrive in the Indo-Pacific region. Set against China’s rising influence under the BRI, many competing initiatives have been proposed by “like-minded” countries such as Japan, US, India and even the European Union (EU). These range from Japan’s “Free and Open Indo-Pacific” (FOIP) and “Expanded Partnership for Quality Infrastructure” (EPQI), the United States’ Indo-Pacific strategy, India’s Security and Growth for All in the Region (SAGAR) and India-Japan co-envisioned “Asia-Africa Growth Corridor” (AAGC), to the EU’s “Sustainable Connectivity” under the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM). Among these, the AAGC is the most significant because it is based on an inter-continental connectivity proposal factoring in Asia, the Indian Ocean and Africa. The AAGC emphasizes connectivity, corridors and infrastructure development with emphasis on the Indian Ocean, which is also a focus of Beijing’s Maritime Silk Road (MSR), making it a competing framework to reckon with China’s BRI in the Indo-Pacific.
New Delhi’s approach towards the AAGC is key given the centrality of India in Indian Ocean. Formally announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the opening ceremony of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group Annual Meeting in Ahmedabad in his home state of Gujarat on May 23, 2017, the AAGC emphasizes cooperation with Africa in an intercontinental growth and developmental framework. It intends to focus on four aspects: development and cooperation, quality infrastructure and institutional connectivity, capacity building and enhancing skill development and improving people-to-people partnership between Asia and Africa. These proposed areas complement Japan’s “Free and Open Indo-Pacific” foreign policy strategy and the “Expanded Partnership for Quality Infrastructure” initiative to promote investment in quality infrastructure announced by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2016.
Remodeled after Japan’s earlier “Partnership for Quality Infrastructure”(PQI), the EPQI seeks to encourage the export of high-quality infrastructure with partnering countries across the world within a mutual economic developmental framework. An approximate US$200 billionwas allocated by the Japanese government under the EPQI for quality infrastructure investment. “Conditional support” to China’s BRI notwithstanding, Japan’s aim is to have a better strategic space internationally by promoting its quality infrastructure. How does India, a global partner of Japan, visualize AAGC? Read the full Policy Brief here.
