Japan pledges more vessels for Vietnam’s security amid maritime dispute with China

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Nguyen Phu Trong, general secretary of Vietnam's ruling Communist Party, and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe discussed tensions in the South China Sea. Photo: Kyodo

Published: 8:29pm, 15 Sep 2015

Japan has pledged has to provide more vessels to Vietnam as part of the country’s efforts to boost its security capabilities in the wake of China’s muscle-flexing in the South China Sea.

A bilateral accord extending grant aid worth 200 million yen ($1.7 million) was signed as part of a set of deals agreed between Japan and Vietnam during a visit to Tokyo by Nguyen Phu Trong, general secretary of Vietnam’s ruling Communist Party.

A few hours after arriving in Japan yesterday for a four-day trip, Trong met with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the two leaders reaffirmed their nations’ cooperation in boosting maritime security, an issue that is important for Hanoi, which is engaged in a territorial row with Beijing in the South China Sea.

Trong’s official visit - his first to Japan since assuming his post in 2011 - comes at a time when Japan and Vietnam are stepping up their cooperation to counter China’s growing maritime assertiveness in the resource-rich sea.

A Chinese Coast Guard ship uses a water cannon on a Vietnamese ship in disputed waters in the South China Sea in 2014. Photo: AFP

According to a joint statement issued after the two leaders’ meeting at Abe’s office, they “expressed their serious concerns” over massive land reclamation work and building of outposts in the South China Sea.