Japan Offers Support to Nations in Disputes With China
TOKYO
— Saying that his nation will play a larger role in regional security,
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan said on Friday that his government
would support Vietnam and other nations that have territorial disputes
with China by providing patrol ships, training and military surveillance
equipment.
Mr.
Abe, speaking at an international security meeting in Singapore, said
he wanted Japan to shed the passiveness that has marked its diplomacy
after World War II and take more responsibility for maintaining regional
stability. He said Japan would cooperate with the United States and
other like-minded nations like Australia and India to uphold
international rule of law and freedom of navigation, and to discourage
China’s increasingly assertive efforts to take control of islands and
expanses of ocean that are claimed by other Asian nations, including
Japan.
“Japan
intends to play an even greater and more proactive role than it has
until now in making peace in Asia and the world something more certain,”
Mr. Abe said.
Referring to the Association for Southeast Asian Nations,
he said, “Japan will offer its utmost support for efforts by Asean
member countries to ensure the security of the seas and skies and
rigorously maintain freedom of navigation and overflight.”
Japan
has been stepping up efforts to serve as at least a partial
counterbalance to China’s rising economic and military power in the
region, by building new security ties with Australia and Southeast Asia
and by serving as a more fully fledged ally of the United States. Japan
has been moving slowly and carefully for years to set aside its postwar
aversion to military power and play a larger security role in East Asia,
a region still scarred by Japan’s brutal imperialism in the early 20th
century.
Mr.
Abe, a conservative, has sped up these efforts since he took office in
December 2012 as part of his broader vision of changing Japan into a
more “normal” nation that can defend itself and its allies. In his
speech on Friday, he highlighted some recent changes he has made,
including the recent lifting of a ban on the export of military hardware.
Map
Territorial Disputes in the Waters Near China
China has recently increased its pursuit of territorial
claims in nearby seas, leading to tense exchanges with neighboring
countries. A map of some of the most notable disputes.
“We
are now able to send out Japan’s superb defense equipment,” he said,
for purposes such as “rescue, transportation, vigilance, surveillance
and minesweeping.” He said military equipment could be included in the
aid that Japan would offer to Southeast Asian nations facing Chinese
claims in the South China Sea.
In particular, Mr. Abe said Japan wanted to provide patrol ships to Vietnam, which is now in a tense standoff with China
over the sudden appearance of a Chinese oil drilling platform near a
chain of small islands that both nations claim. He noted that Japan had
already decided to provide 10 similar ships to the Philippines, which is
trying to turn back Chinese efforts to control a different group of
disputed islands. And Japan would help train the coast guards of
Vietnam, the Philippines and other Asian nations, he said.
“By doing so, the bonds between the people on the Japan side and the recipient side invariably become stronger,” Mr. Abe said.
South
Korea and China, which are closer geographically to Japan, have
criticized Mr. Abe’s policy as an attempt to revive Japanese militarism,
but his moves have met with a warmer welcome in Southeast Asia.
Analysts say that for nations there, China’s increasingly aggressive
territorial claims have begun to outweigh memories of Japan’s wartime
aggression.
Mr.
Abe has made building closer security ties in the region a pillar of
his foreign policy. In his speech on Friday, he noted that he had
visited 10 Southeast Asian nations last year, and that he was trying to
build “a new special relationship” with Australia that includes joint
military training and joint development of military equipment.
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