Earthquake and Friendship Consolidation: Japan’s Disaster Cooperation Efforts in Türkiye
Earthquake and Friendship Consolidation: Japan’s Disaster Cooperation Efforts in Türkiye

Author(s): Kıvılcım Erkan
Subject(s): Energy and Environmental Studies, Physical Geopgraphy, Environmental Geography
Published by: Transnational Press London
Keywords: Earthquake; friendship; consolidation; Japan; disaster; cooperation; efforts; Türkiye;
Summary/Abstract: The relations between Japan and Türkiye can be characterized as amicable, yet underdeveloped. The bilateral trade between the two countries has been dwindling and neither Japan nor Türkiye is the other’s main trading partner. Türkiye has been increasingly importing manufactured goods from China and Korea at the expense of Japan. Türkiye also suffers a trade account deficit with Japan as the main imports from Japan are high-value-added goods. On the security front, there has not been much cooperation except for a project to train Afghan police officers in cooperation with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 2011 in the post-conflict reconstruction process of Afghanistan. Japan provided the funds to finance the project and dispatched instructors to Türkiye for police training. While Japan is revising its antimilitarist stance and minimalist security and defense postures, it continues to be anchored in the Western security and defense frameworks, Türkiye on the other hand is moving away from a Western-oriented foreign and security policy towards a Eurasianist direction developing closer ties with Russia and China. The diverging stances of the two countries may complicate future cooperation in the security and defense areas.

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