Sailing into Strategy: Japan, US, France Shift of Indo-Pacific Balance and Rising Tides Against China’s Expansion
Japan, US, and France conducting Indo-Pacific military drills to counter China’s expansion. Photo: VCG
Japan's Maritime self-defense force and the Navies of the US and France have conducted their first joint exercises involving aircraft carriers in waters east of the Philippines. It comes amid a recent series of visits to Japan and the India Pacific by European warships and fighter jets in the face of a more assertive China.
The 11-day exercise began on February 10th,, 2025. 11 vessels including Japan's de facto aircraft carrier kaga took part in the drills the American carrier USS Carl Vincent and the French Navy's Charles de Gaulle were also deployed. The French navy hadn't deployed its carrier Fleet in the Pacific region since the 1960s. This is one of the first times it was seen on aninternational stage. It is now facing its greatest trial and the existing order is being seriously challenged. Japan itself has the most severe and complex security environment. The significance of the drill aircraft carriers are symbols of their respective navies a joint exercise involving the aircraft carriers and navies of these three countries has great significance as it's a demonstration of the strong Unity that they enjoy
From Warships & Warnings to Steel and Strategy
This exercise is intended to send a message and the main target is China. Beijing has been using its Naval and aerial power to make steady advances into the waters in this region, and it is wielding that power to gradually change the status quo. The countries which took part in this drill want to put a stop to that since the start of the Trump Administration.
We've been seeing a kind of divergence of opinion between the US and Europe but Japan, US and Europe, including France, have shown that when it comes to the Pacific region their Cooperative relationship is unshakeable and that's a message which China will understand that the exercise is the latest example of how European countries are strengthening ties with Japan and commitment to stability in the region.
Last August, the Italian aircraft carrier Cavour made a port call in Japan. For the first time, it took part in a joint exercise with Japan's maritime Self-Defense Force before making calls in other parts of the Indo Pacific region including the Philippines and India
In September, German Navy vessels passed through the Taiwan Strait for the first time in 22 years, the move was believed to be aimed at sending a message to China as it steps up military pressure on Taiwan. In the year 2021, the Netherlands sent naval vessels to Japan and Britain, saying it will deploy an aircraft carrier strike group to the indo-pacific, and now, this year European countries did send the vessels. China is an important partner economically but there are other areas where they don't see eye to eye. There is a growing recognition in Western Europe that China is a partner that doesn't share fundamental values with them. It's also a reality that China has started putting pressure on Taiwan through military force.
From Europe's perspective, China is quite different. Some, if not many, believe the recognition of this fact has spread that countering China is also important for Europe in order to face the ongoing threat from Russia. Europe has come to recognize that China and Russia have a shared goal and are cooperating more closely, so Europe needs to deal with Russia but it must also deal with China. It is clear that they ultimately won't be able to guarantee the security of countries in Europe unless they deter Russia and China from working together to reshape the world order.
It's the same for the US and Japan even under President Trump don't think there's been any major change in the attitude of the US towards east Asia especially China when it comes to this region. The US will pursue policies to counter China by continuing to take advantage of the Cooperative relationships it has with its allies and naturally that includes European countries. They want to strengthen cooperation in this region. Japan's efforts to improve its response capabilities as much as possible will present an obstacle to China's use of military force in this region. It is important for Japan to think about what it should do
Sailing into Strategy: Japan, US, France Shift Indo-Pacific Balance
Technically, Europe have no intention to contain China (that's obvious) but at the same time it does not want any unilateral change of status quo, by force, by coercion, which is something that it is better for trying not to establish a “coalition” against China but try to cooperate with it so that China would become able to understand what is needed for them to behave as mentioned if it wants to avoid a major-scale conflict.
Earlier, Chinese military aircraft crossed into Japanese aerospace last month and is not something that we can take as one single incident. That's a chain of a whole sort of trend on the part of Chinese military Power seems to be really rapidly expanding to not be contained in Chinese territorial water, Chinese Mainland or Chinese air space, but outside so with tensions in this region rising.
The Bigger Power Theatre
The Philippines, Indonesia and South Korea were invited to the meeting a maritime security. Experts point out that given the current Global situation Europe is increasingly prioritizing cooperation with the region when Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the coordination between China and Russia has become quite clear in that sense. Russia, which is putting pressure on Europe and China, is also putting pressure on Asia.
We can see that the relationship between Europe and Asia-Pacific is becoming closer in terms of security. This reflects a sense of crisis that China, which is regarded as a power that wants to change the status quo by force, is trying to do so especially in the seas. It should be also noted that while Southeast Asian countries differ in their approaches toward China, the prevailing trend is to strike a balance between security and economic considerations. The impressions that drive the clash between the Philippines and China are conspicuous as of now.
While China has much fewer clashes in other countries compared with the Philippines and tensions with them are relatively low, the Chinese are trying to manage the situation with other countries. Indonesia is also trying to strike a balance between the merit and demerits of having relations with China and places more importance on economic cooperation because China is a very important economic partner regarding US involvement in the indo-pacific, following president-elect Trump's inauguration.
Drill or Warning? Global Navies Test China’s Patience
It is now unpredictable that G7 and friendly nations are now working hard to discourage a significant policy shift from the White House. The president-elect Trump himself is much interested in the Asian framework itself: that's why it needs to think about how to deal with the US. The Philippines, Japan, Australia, and European countries have accumulated a lot of achievements in security coordination which has been seen from time to time based on the alliance with the United States.
If there is a situation where such security cooperation is becoming conventional, it can expect continuity of the coordination even if the top leader's mind or the top leader itself changes.