The 1st Baltic Indo-Pacific Forum (BIPF)
6 June 2024 in Tallinn, Estonia
Photos: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjBtSFk
On 6 June 2024, the Japan Chair at ICDS held The First Baltic Indo-Pacific Forum.
The Forum examined the security situation in the Indo-Pacific region with a focus on the key challenges faced by Japan and other Asian countries in the context of the growing Sino-US rivalry and Sino-Russian alignment. Special attention was given to the growing security interconnection between Asia and Europe amid the continuing war in Ukraine. Panelists debated the restructuring of the US-Japan alliance, the growing tensions in the Taiwan Strait, North Korea’s collaboration with Russia, and Japan’s emergence as a security provider. The discussions further explored Estonian/Baltic and EU perspectives on Indo-Pacific security, as well as the opportunities for security cooperation between the EU, NATO, and like-minded regional players, including Japan. Shared concerns about the challenges to the liberal international order, economic security, and hybrid threats were identified as some of the key drivers of inter-regional collaboration. At the same time, the debate also highlighted the challenges to deepened cooperation, including the question of prioritisation and allocation of resources and the different strategic priorities in both regions.
The Baltic Indo-Pacific Forum is the annual flagship event of the Japan Chair at the ICDS. The event provides a venue for high-level experts, policymakers, and key stakeholders to discuss the main security and strategic issues in the Indo-Pacific region and how they relate to the strategic environment in the Baltic-Nordic region and Europe, in general.
Agenda
12.30-13.15
Registration and coffee/tea
13.15-13.30
Welcome and opening remarks
Greetings by Mr Indrek KANNIK, Director of the ICDS
Greetings by HE Ambassador Yukihiko MATSUMURA, Ambassador of Japan to Estonia
Keynote speech by Mr Margus TSAHKNA, Foreign Minister of Estonia
13.30-15.00
Panel I “The Indo-Pacific security context: key challenges and responses”
Speakers:
Mr Noriyuki SHIKATA, Cabinet Secretary for Public Affairs, Prime Minister’s Office of Japan
Mr Masashi MURANO, Hudson Institute, Washington DC
Dr Alexandra SAKAKI, German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP)
Mr Marko MIHKELSON, Head of the foreign affairs committee, Estonian parliament
Moderator: Dr Elena ATANASSOVA-CORNELIS, Japan Chair at the ICDS
15.00-15.45
Coffee Break
15.45-17.15
Panel II “The Indo-Pacific and Europe: opportunities for security cooperation”
Speakers:
Prof Michito TSURUOKA, Keio University, Japan
Mr Gunnar WIEGAND, Visiting Professor College of Europe and Paris School of International Affairs (Sciences Po), Visiting Distinguished Fellow at GMF
Dr Vida MACIKENAITE, International University of Japan
Dr Shogo AKAGAWA, Editor-in-Chief for EMEA/NIKKEI newspaper
Moderator: Dr Alexandra SAKAKI, German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP)
17.15-17.30
Closing Remarks by the Japan Chair
Speakers
Dr Elena Atanassova-Cornelis, Japan Chair at ICDS
Dr Elena Atanassova-Cornelis is also a Professor of International Politics of the Asia-Pacific at the University of Antwerp and Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium, an adjunct professor at the Brussels School of Governance of Vrije Universiteit Brussel, as well as an Associate Fellow within the Global Fellowship Initiative of the Geneva Centre for Security Policy, Switzerland.
Dr Atanassova-Cornelis has authored numerous academic articles, book chapters, briefing papers and policy reports covering Japanese foreign and security policy; alliances, alignments and major power relations in the Indo-Pacific; regional security in Northeast Asia, including the geopolitics of the Taiwan Strain and the Korean Peninsula; as well as regional multilateralism and EU-Asia relations. She is regularly invited as a speaker at international conferences, high-level expert meetings and policy-oriented seminars, and as a guest lecturer at various universities in both Europe and Asia. She has extensive experience in professional and executive training on Asia-related topics in programmes designed for European, East Asian and other countries’ government and military officials, diplomats, civil servants and business representatives.
Mr Noriyuki SHIKATA, Cabinet Secretary for Public Affairs, Prime Minister’s Office of Japan
Mr Noriyuki “Nori” Shikata was appointed as Cabinet Secretary for Public Affairs under Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in October 2021. He was Assistant Minister/Director General, Economic Affairs Bureau of Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) (2020-21). His other prior positions include: Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of Japan in China (2017-19); Deputy Director General, Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, MOFA(2016-17); Political Minister, Embassy of Japan in the U.K.(2012-14); Director of Global Communications, Prime Minister’s Office(2010-12), Director of respectively, Economic Treaties, Second North America (Japan-U.S. economic/trade issues), International Press, and Status of U.S. Forces Agreement Divisions of MOFA.
He was a Visiting Professor at Kyoto University’s Graduate School of Law/Public Policy (Japan’s diplomacy), and Associate, Program on U.S.-Japan Relations, Harvard University. He spent his senior year at Diamond High School in Missouri as AFS student. He holds a B.A. in Law from Kyoto University and Master of Public Policy (MPP) from Harvard Kennedy School of Government. He is a winner of the Gold Standard Award for Political Communications 2011.
Mr Masashi MURANO, Hudson Institute, Washington DC
Mr Masashi Murano is a Japan Chair fellow at Hudson Institute. He leads policy work on US-Japan defense cooperation, building out the Free and Open Indo-Pacific strategy, and nuclear and conventional deterrence analysis. As part of that work, he frequently briefs official delegations, news media, public intellectuals, academics, and business leaders from around the world.
Mr Murano has more than ten years of experience in research, analysis, tabletop exercises, and facilitation of numerous classified products related to strategic intelligence assessment and policy planning for the Japanese government.
Prior to joining Hudson Institute, Mr. Murano was a fellow at the Okazaki Institute, a Tokyo-based think tank. He is a member of several government grant research programs, including the subcommittee on Security Issues in New Domains and the Government Grant Research Program for Foreign Affairs and Security Studies hosted by the University of Tokyo Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology. Mr. Murano’s writings and analyses have been published in leading news media and academic journals, including the Washington Post, Japan Times, Nikkei, Diplomat, Real Clear Defense, nippon.com, the Japan Review, and the Texas National Security Review.
Mr Murano received both his master’s and bachelor’s degrees from Takushoku University in Tokyo, pursuing graduate work in security studies and undergraduate work in Asia-Pacific studies.
Mr Marko MIHKELSON, Head of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Estonian parliament
Mr Marko Mihkelson is a Member of Estonian Parliament and he is a member of the liberal Reform Party (Renew Europe). He is a Member of the Foreign Affairs Committee. Marko Mihkelson was first elected to the Parliament in 2003 and is currently serving his fifth mandate. He has served in previous parliaments as a Chair of Foreign Affairs Committee, Chair of EU Affairs Committee and Chair of National Defense Committee. Between 2000 and 2003 he worked as the Director of the Baltic Centre for Russian Studies, from 1997 to 2000, he was the Editor-in-Chief of the biggest national daily newspaper Postimees and from 1994 to 1997, he was Postimees’s correspondent in Moscow. He has a MA degree in History from the University of Tartu. He is chairing Council of Foreign Relations of Estonia and he is a Member of the Council of the European Council of Foreign Relations and ICDS. He is author of the books „Russia: In Dusk and Dawn“ (2010) and “The Disruptive Era” (2018).
Dr Alexandra SAKAKI, German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP)
Dr Alexandra Sakaki is deputy head of the Asia division at the German Institute for Interna-tional and Security Affairs/ Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP), an independent for-eign policy think tank in Berlin. Her research focuses on Japanese foreign and security policy as well as Indo-Pacific security dynamics. Previously, she was a visiting researcher at Keio University and the National Defense Academy in Japan. Having studied East Asian Studies and International Relations at Princeton University (USA) and at the University of Cambridge (UK), she received her doctorate in political science at the University of Trier (Germany). She has authored numerous policy papers as well as articles in such journals as International Affairs, West European Politics, East Asia and the Australian Journal of In-ternational Affairs.
Prof Michito TSURUOKA, Keio University, Japan
Dr Michito Tsuruoka is an Associate Professor at Keio University. Prior to joining Keio in 2017, he was a Senior Research Fellow at the National Institute for Defense Studies (NIDS), Ministry of Defense from 2009. While at NIDS, Dr Tsuruoka was seconded to the Ministry of Defense as a Deputy Director of the International Policy Division, Bureau of Defense Policy (2012-2013), where he was in charge of multilateral security and defence cooperation in Asia and served as a Visiting Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies (RUSI), London (2013-2014). Prior to joining NIDS, he was a Resident Fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF) in Brussels (2009) and served as an Adviser for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) at the Embassy of Japan in Belgium (2005-2008). Dr Tsuruoka studied politics and international relations at Keio University and Georgetown University and earned a PhD from King’s College London. His areas of expertise include European foreign policy (particularly Europe-Japan/Asia relations) and Japan’s foreign, security and defence policy.
Dr Vida MACIKENAITE, International University of Japan
Dr Vida Macikenaite is Assistant Professor at the Graduate School of International Relations of the International University of Japan. With an original major in political science at Vilnius University, Lithuania and graduate degrees from Keio University in Japan and Fudan University in China, she specialises in Chinese politics. While her major field of research is China’s domestic and foreign policies in the context of authoritarian regimes, her research centred on state capacity and economic statecraft, with a special focus on state-business relations.
She is currently working on a project on China-Russia relations in the global context.
More recently, Dr Macikenaite has explored China’s exercise of economic statecraft in Europe and European states’ policies toward China and Taiwan. She has also been closely watching the approach of European states to the Indo-Pacific region and has advised selected government institutions on relevant matters.
Dr Shogo AKAGAWA, Editor-in-Chief for EMEA/NIKKEI newspaper
Dr Shogo Akagawa is a journalist currently working for Japanese Newspaper NIKKEI as an Editor-in-Chief for EMEA, based in London. He is lecturer at the Freie University Berlin, too. He began his career after working as a trainee at several European banks. In 1999 he was awarded the Japan Newspaper Publishers & Editors Association prize for journalism. He has published numerous interviews with various European head of state or governors of the central banks, articles, books and has held lectures in Japan as well as in Europe. He graduated in economics from the Keio University (B.A.). He holds a Master’s degree as well as a Doctorate in political sciences from the Freie Universität Berlin.
Mr Gunnar WIEGAND, Visiting Professor of International Relations and Diplomacy at the College of Europe in Bruges
Mr Gunnar Wiegand is a Visiting Professor of International Relations and Diplomacy at the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium and at the Paris School of International Affairs (Sciences Po), a Visiting Distinguished Fellow at the German Marshall Fund (Indo-Pacific Program), Brussels Office and Senior Adviser/Member of the Strategic Board of the European Policy Centre, Brussels.
Wiegand was the EU’s Managing Director for Asia and the Pacific at the European External Action Service (EEAS) from 2016 to 2023. He was a key contributor to the EU’s policy orientations on EU relations with China and India, responsible for developing the EU Strategy for Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific and the Europe-Asia Connectivity Strategy (the precursor of the Global Gateway Initiative), and he promoted the EU’s enhanced security engagement with Indo-Pacific partners. In addition, he was the EU’s Chief Negotiator for the EU-Japan Strategic Partnership Agreement, the EU’s Senior Official for EU-ASEAN relations and for the Asia Europe (ASEM) summit meetings.
Before assuming this function, he was Deputy Managing Director for Russia, Eastern Partnership, Central Asia and OSCE since 2011 at the EEAS (2011-2015), and the European Commission’s Director for Eastern Europe, Southern Caucasus and Central Asia at the External Relations Directorate-General (since 2008-2011). During this period, he was the EU’s Chief Negotiator for the Association Agreements with Moldova, Georgia and Armenia, the Association Agenda with Ukraine and the Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation Agreement with Kazakhstan.
Should you have any further questions about the conference, please feel free to contact the organisers via email [email protected]