Testing Beijing, Japan eyes growing role in South China Sea security

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By Tim Kelly and Nobuhiro Kubo

TOKYO (Reuters) - Seventy years after its imperial forces were kicked out of the South China Sea, Japan is quietly moving back into the region, forging security ties with the Philippines and Vietnam as both Southeast Asian nations try to cope with China's territorial ambitions. Tokyo's security cooperation is broad-based: It is supplying maritime patrol boats to the two countries while Japan will hold its first naval exercises with the Philippines in the coming months. Japanese military doctors are even advising Vietnamese submariners on how to deal with decompression sickness. Japan is providing this help, and more, in a calibrated escalation of involvement to avoid a backlash from Beijing, said Japanese sources with knowledge of the assistance. Manila and Hanoi are the two capitals most at odds with Beijing over the South China Sea. Japan itself is embroiled in a bitter row with China over uninhabited islands in the East China Sea, further to the north. Tokyo has no territorial claims in the South China Sea, but worries about becoming isolated should China dominate a waterway through which much of Japan's ship-borne trade passes. Japan's assistance follows a speech last May by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who said Tokyo would help Southeast Asia maintain freedom of navigation and overflight in the region. The cooperation is also in line with a more muscular security policy advocated by Abe, who wants to loosen the restraints of Japan's pacifist post-war constitution, and dovetails with Washington's "rebalance" toward Asia.


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Testing Beijing, Japan eyes growing role in South China Sea security | Reuters

 

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Japan promises ships to Vietnam amid South China Sea fears

TOKYO (AFP) - Japan on Tuesday (Sept 15) promised Vietnam ships to strengthen its forces in the South China Sea, with the two nations describing large-scale land reclamation there as a threat to peace - a veiled reference to China. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe also pledged some 100 billion yen (S$ 1.2 billion) in infrastructure loans after holding talks with Nguyen Phu Trong, in his first visit to Japan as general secretary of Vietnam's ruling Communist Party. Both countries are locked in separate maritime territorial disputes with an increasingly assertive China and are strengthening cooperation as a result. A statement after the talks said the leaders "expressed their serious concerns over recent and ongoing developments in the South China Sea", although they stopped short of referring directly to Beijing. These "large-scale land reclamation and building of outposts... have increased tensions, eroded trust and confidence, and threatened peace and stability in the region and the world", they said. China claims the right to almost all of the South China Sea, parts of which are also claimed by the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam. Japan and China are locked in conflict over disputed islands in the East China Sea. Abe pledged to give more second- hand vessels to Vietnam but did not specify how many. Japan's foreign minister last year said his country would give Hanoi six used ships for patrols in the South China Sea. "Japan decided to give Vietnam additional second-hand vessels at its request," the Japanese premier told a news conference.


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Japan promises ships to Vietnam amid South China Sea fears