Sun Lee
As Japan is drawing up a new 10-year roadmap to strengthen its defence relations with Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, and Malaysia by improving their naval capabilities, the Indo-Pacific region is about to see the emergence of strong counter measures against China which continues to pose a challenge to peace and security around the South and East China Seas and the Taiwan Strait.
The South China Morning Post quoted Masafumi Iida, a senior official of the National Institute of Defence Studies, a think tank which is affiliated with Japan’s Ministry of Defence as saying that under the plan, Japan will provide “sustained and evolving assistance over a period of a decade” to Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, and Malaysia as they are struggling to save their atolls and shoals in the South China Sea from being encroached upon by China.
Details of the roadmap for improving maritime capabilities of four Southeast Asian nations are being drawn up by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). While the proposed roadmap is not expected to see the light of the day very soon, discussion is going on among the Japanese authorities over the provision of drones, radar systems and patrol boats to all four Southeast Asian nations.
In the meanwhile, Japanese officials have conducted on-site surveys in Philippines and Indonesia and similar activities are scheduled for April in Malaysia and Vietnam, NHK, the Japanese news outlet said.
Amid this, questions are being raised on the fate of the Official Security Assistance (OSA) which was launched by Tokyo last year. Under OSA, Japan announced providing financial assistance to the national security authorities of other countries to boost their defence capabilities in order to strengthen regional stability.
It was said that the OSA will run in parallel to Japanese Overseas Development Assistance. There is an understanding that the new 10-year road map being drawn up to enhance maritime capabilities of Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, and Malaysia will work as an additional framework of support for these four Southeast Asian countries in the area of defence.
In simple words, Japan will help Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, and Malaysia in procuring quality defence equipment and infrastructure to fight off China’s threat to their sovereign areas in the South China Sea. In fact, China lays claim over 90% of the South China Sea and as such, in violation of international law, continues to threaten those countries which have overlapping claims over this water body of the Pacific Ocean.
On January 18, as per The Japan Times, officials of the JICA and Japan’s embassy in Manila met officials of the Philippines government to discuss Tokyo’s intention to offer OSA-related assistance to the Southeast Asian country in the midst of the evolving security challenges in the region.
Earlier in November 2023, Tokyo and Manila during Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s maiden visit to the Philippines, agreed to begin their talks on the Reciprocal Access Agreement (RAA) – a pact that provides the legal framework for greater bilateral security cooperation, The Yomiuri Shimbun said. Once Japan and Philippines conclude RAA, the armed forces of the two countries will get access to each other’s bases and undertake rotational deployment of troops and begin joint exercises. Japan had previously signed similar agreements with Australia and the UK.
In November, during the visit to the Philippines, Kishida as the Japanese Prime Minister had pledged to provide $4 million worth of coastal surveillance radars to Manila under the OSA framework, making the Philippines the first Southeast Asian country to become a beneficiary of Japan’s security assistance programme. Significantly, Tokyo’s announcement of providing coastal surveillance radars to Manila came close on the heels of Japan delivering the first air surveillance radar system to Philippines that the Southeast Asian nation procured from Japan under a 2020 deal.
Japan’s objective behind such assistance is to create a bulwark of defence and security mechanism around the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait. This factor was also present when Prime Minister Kishida, during his visit to Malaysia on November 4, 2023, agreed to “accelerate coordination for the implementation of the OSA and concurred to further strengthen cooperation in the maritime field, including joint training and exchanges between the Japan Self-Defence Forces and the Malaysian Armed Forces as well as joint training between coast guard agencies of the two countries,” Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. Japan has agreed to provide $2.8 million to Malaysia to boost its maritime security.
With Vietnam, Japan agreed to deepen military cooperation even more than before, “to maintain and enhance a free and open international order based on the rule of law,” Japanese Prime Minister Kishida was quoted by The Yomiuri Shimbun as saying during a press conference with Vietnamese President Vo Van Thuong in Tokyo on November 28, 2023. During the Vietnamese President’s visit, the two countries had concurred upgrading Tokyo-Hanoi ties to a comprehensive strategic partnership. Japan had also agreed to provide weapons and defence technology to Vietnam under the OSA framework which is under discussion between the two countries.
Japan also agreed to provide the Indonesian coast guard with a patrol vessel worth $63million to help Jakarta enhance its maritime capability. Interestingly, China has so far not issued any statement against Japan’s new roadmap for security assistance to four Southeast Asian nations, but Global Times, which is mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had made a scathing comment against Tokyo when it had organised a special summit with the ASEAN in December last year. China’s English daily said, “Japan’s ambition to use Southeast Asian countries to improve its maritime defence capabilities deserves vigilance.”
China appeared to be peeved at the joint statement issued by Japan and ASEAN after the summit. “Japan and ASEAN will commit to security cooperation including maritime security cooperation,” Japan-ASEAN joint statement said. “If defence cooperation between Japan and Southeast Asian countries is directed against a third party, it will have a very negative impact on the stability of the regional order,” Global Times said.
In recent years, given the radically altered geo-security situation in the Indo-Pacific region, with China and North Korea flexing their military capabilities, Japan’s pacifist idealism has given way to pragmatic and proactive moves. It has changed the course of its defence and security policy. While churning is within Japan’s ruling establishment on hosting US nuclear weapons facilities on Japanese soil, Tokyo has not ruled out developing the capability to strike at enemy bases. In order to maintain a rules-based global order and preserve world peace, it is not shying away from developing new policy initiatives, including a network of strategic and economic partnerships and expanding security and defence cooperation with regional partners and like-minded countries in the Indo
-Pacific region.
Sun Lee is the pseudonym for a writer who covers Asia.
