Japan has agreed to provide the Philippines with two large sea patrol vessels as it seeks to counter China’s maritime expansion by reinforcing other countries in the region.
Shinzo Abe, Japan’s prime minister, and Rodrigo Duterte, the Philippine president, struck the deal on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit being held in Vientiane, the Laos capital. Japan will also loan Manila up to five used TC-90 surveillance aircraft.
The deal marks another step in Japan’s effort to offset China’s growing strength by creating a chain of regional allies committed to the status quo and the “rule of law” at sea.
Coastguard vessels are often on the front line of territorial disputes in Asia, entering disputed waters where a naval ship would be too provocative. There has been a trend towards ever bigger coastguard vessels that can intimidate rivals with their sheer size.
The two new vessels will be in the 90-metre class, similar to the largest ships in Japan’s own coastguard fleet. They will follow 10 smaller vessels, the first of which Japan delivered in August.
The ships will be funded with a 40-year concessional yen loan of Y16.5bn ($160m) at an interest rate of 0.1 per cent, Japan’s foreign ministry said.
China claims almost all of the South China Sea and has been building artificial islands on reefs and atolls. Its claims overlap with those of Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, as well as Brunei and Taiwan.
In depth
Latest news and comment on the escalating disputes over islands and territorial waters between an increasingly assertive China and its neighbours
Several of those countries have struggled to respond to China’s moves, however, often lacking the air or sea capabilities even to patrol disputed waters or observe what Beijing is doing.
Although Japan has no direct stake in the South China Sea, much of its trade passes through the area, and it has its own territorial dispute with Beijing over the Senkaku or Diaoyu islands in the East China Sea.
There have been a series of stand-offs in recent weeks between Japan and Chinese fishing and coastguard vessels around the islands. By supporting the Philippines and other regional countries, including Vietnam, Tokyo hopes to maintain a united front against changes in the territorial status quo and so strengthen its own security.
The move follows a Hague tribunal ruling in July that there was “no legal basis” for China’s expansive territorial claims. The tribunal concluded that Beijing had “violated the Philippines’ sovereign rights”, raising tensions in the region as China rejected the ruling.
The legal challenge was initiated by former Philippines president Benigno Aquino III, who took a hard line on the issue. Mr Duterte’s position is less clear cut. Japan — which lavishes foreign aid on Manila — is keen to avoid any softening of the Philippines stance.
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