Beyond Washington: The EU's Indo-Pacific strategy through the EUJapan partnership. On the brink of a values-based securitisation?

The deterioration of U.S. global leadership and trust under the second Trump administration’s foreign policy, also known as Trump 2.0, has prompted the European Union to recalibrate its foreign policy priorities, with a growing focus on strategic partnerships in many areas, including the Indo-Pacific. This paper analyses the EU-Japan partnership as a core element of the EU’s evolving Indo-Pacific strategy and argues that it reflects an emerging process of values-based securitisation. In contrast to Washington’s increasingly transactional approach, the EU and Japan are deepening cooperation across trade, technology, energy, and defence, grounded in shared democratic principles and a commitment to multilateralism. Key initiatives, including the EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement, the Green Alliance, the Digital Partnership, and the 2024 Security and Defence Partnership, demonstrate strong normative alignment and a desire for operational convergence. The paper analyses how both actors are redefining their foreign policy and broader security strategies by prioritising resilience in critical areas such as digital infrastructure, supply chains, and dual-use technologies. In doing so, the partnership creates a framework for institutionalised co-leadership in a fragmenting international system. Ultimately, the EU-Japan partnership provides not only a pillar for Indo-Pacific stability but also a blueprint for reinforcing the rules-based international order in an era of geopolitical uncertainty, weakened multilateralism, and systemic rivalries.