By Clint Richards
Japan is calibrating its cooperation with Vietnam in order to support Abe’s larger agenda.
As The Diplomat has noted extensively since last week, the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore last weekend saw Japan and the U.S. square off against China in asserting their interpretations of recent events in the South China Sea and East China Sea. China’s recent territorial conflicts with Vietnam and the Philippines, and the Japanese government’s attempt to normalize its security role in the region, were the main examples used by the opposing sides to showcase the threat to security posed by their opponent. As the dust begins to settle from the atmospherics over the weekend, Vietnam appears to be the country most interested in aligning with Japan, and willing to increase the scope of their security partnership. Japan is showing itself to be a willing partner, albeit with some important caveats.
As I noted yesterday, Vietnam’s Vice Defense Minister Nguyen Chi Vinh said on Sunday that his country expects to receive coast guard ships from Japan early next year, also stating that Japan had agreed to train and share information with Vietnam’s Coast Guard. He took pains to single out Japan’s support for Vietnam’s current conflict with China, and urged other countries in the region to do the same. For his part, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told the Diet last Wednesday that Japan would be unable to “immediately provide decommissioned patrol ships to Vietnam as its own coastguard was stretched by surveillance activities,” according to Reuters. Abe was clearly referring to the ongoing deployment of a large part of the Japanese Coast Guard around the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands. As a side note, this statement before the Diet was intended to underscore Abe’s current push to reinterpret Article 9 of Japan’s Constitution, which would then create a larger role for the Maritime Self-Defense Forces concerning the disputed islands.
Read the full story at The Diplomat