Japan to help improve maritime capabilities of 4 Asean states amid South China Sea row

Japan is drawing up a 10-year plan to provide sustained and evolving assistance to Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam

The initiative is likely to attract some criticism from Chinese analysts and the media, an observer says

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Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida (seated) visits a Philippine Coast Guard vessel in Manila on November 4, 2023, during a three-day official visit to Southeast Asia. Photo: Kyodo

Published: 7:30pm, 13 Feb 2024Updated: 8:20pm, 13 Feb 2024

Japan is drawing up a new 10-year plan to improve the maritime capabilities of four nations in Southeast Asia that are struggling to resist growing encroachment into their territorial waters by China.

Tokyo has previously delivered maritime equipment to a number of countries in the region under one-off arrangements, but the new initiative is designed to provide sustained and evolving assistance over a period of a decade, according to an official of the National Institute of Defence Studies (NIDS), a think tank affiliated with Japan’s Ministry of Defence.

The assistance is to be provided to the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam, all of which have territorial claims in the South China Sea that have been impacted by China occupying atolls and shoals in the region, said Masafumi Iida, a leading China analyst at NIDS.

A China Coast Guard ship moves past a Philippine Coast Guard vessel BRP Sindangan in the disputed Second Thomas Shoal, in the South China Sea. Photo: Bloomberg

He added that Tokyo was considering expanding the scheme to include Sri Lanka in the future, as it occupies a strategic position in the Indian Ocean.

The details of the project are being drawn up by the Japan International Cooperation Agency, which is usually tasked by the government with implementing overseas development assistance schemes to build schools, hospitals and other infrastructure in developing nations.

“Japan announced the introduction of the Official Security Assistance (OSA) at the start of fiscal 2024 in April last year, to serve as a new framework for providing security assistance to other countries that require such help,” Iida said.

OSA will run in parallel to Japanese Overseas Development Assistance to all four nations, he added.

“The major purpose of OSA is to enhance these nations’ maritime domain awareness and capabilities and help to maintain stability,” Iida told This Week in Asia.