East Asia’s Strategic Advantage in the Middle East

The modern trajectory of Middle Eastern–East Asian interactions has garnered very little scholarly attention and scrutiny. The two-way connections between both regions have witnessed a litany of activities and developments over the past several decades, but such dynamics are yet to be investigated sufficiently in tandem with their overall impacts on the world’s safety and well-being. Few academic works have made an attempt to probe the nature and extent of each region’s inclusive significance for the other party, while the central role of the West behind such eventuality has attracted the least attention. Aiming to fill part of this acute research gap, the present study concentrates primarily on different aspects of East Asia’s modern relationship with the Middle East by turning the spotlight on strategic advantages of East Asian countries in all those critical areas in the region.

Over the past several years, there has been a slew of talks and debates about the formation of strategic ties between the East Asian states and their counterparts across the Middle East region. In reality, however, East Asia''s advantage of strategic nature has been there for decades, shaping the contours of an increasingly multifaceted chain of interactions involving the two sides. As a corollary, the more other stakeholders (Western powers in particular) made serious attempts to secure their precious assets in the Middle East, the larger East Asia''s mileage in the region grew strategically.