As part of our program on expanding support for democratic governance in Asia, JCIE hosted a private roundtable discussion led by Ambassador Yukio Takasu, Chair of the JCIE Study Group on Democracy for the Future Project and former Permanent Representative of Japan to the United Nations, on the theme of shared values in Asian-led efforts to support and defend democracy. The off-the-record discussion was held as a follow-on to the webinar for policymakers and civil society groups in Japan and Asia hosted by JCIE in November 2020 to introduce the “Sunnylands Principles on Enhancing Democratic Partnership in the Indo-Pacific Region”. The roundtable was attended by approximately 30 Sunnylands Project participants and organizers from the US, Japan, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea, and Taiwan.

The Sunnylands Principles came out of a discussion among leading thinkers on democracy in the US, Japan, and other countries in Asia that was co-hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the National Endowment for Democracy, and the Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands, and includes statement of principles for advancing democratic governance and human rights in the Indo-Pacific Region that were endorsed by the participants.