Shinzo Abe offers Japan's 'utmost support' to Southeast Asian nations

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, pushing for a greater role for Japan in regional security, said yesterday Tokyo would offer its "utmost support" to Southeast Asian countries, several of which are locked in maritime disputes with its arch-rival China.

China claims almost the entire South China Sea, rejecting rival claims to parts of it from Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei in one of Asia's most intractable disputes and a possible flashpoint.

Beijing also has a separate maritime dispute with Japan over islands in the East China Sea.

Abe, in his keynote address yesterday at the Shangri-La Dialogue for security officials and experts from the Asia-Pacific, also stressed the need for countries to respect international law - often code for criticising China's assertive military stance.

"Japan will offer its utmost support for the efforts of the countries of Asean as they work to ensure the security of the seas and the skies, and thoroughly maintain freedom of navigation and freedom of overflight," Abe told the forum.

Abe's address, the first to the forum by a Japanese leader, coincides with his controversial push to ease restrictions in Japan's post-war, pacifist constitution that have kept its military from fighting overseas since the second world war.