MikeLigalig.com

Japan Gets Involved In South China Sea Territorial Dispute: Tokyo Offers Maritime Support To Philippines, Vietnam
By  Michelle FlorCruz @mflorcruz [email protected] on March 11 2015 5:04 PM EDT



A Chinese coast guard vessel patrols near the BRP Sierra Madre, a marooned transport ship employed as a military outpost by Filipino marines, in the disputed Second Thomas Shoal, part of the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, on March 30, 2014. Reuters/Erik De Castro


China and several Southeast Asian nations are currently embroiled in a territorial and maritime dispute in the South China Sea over an area that includes a cluster of resource-rich islands and important trade routes. As China’s presence in the area becomes harder to ignore, Japan has quietly begun forging security ties with Chinese geopolitical adversaries.

According to a report by Reuters, Tokyo will be involved in joint training exercises with Vietnam and the naval military of the Philippines. The two countries have been China’s biggest challengers when it comes to vocalizing their own sovereignty claims in the region. Tokyo has reportedly offered 10 coast guard boats in the area ahead of what will be the first joint naval exercises between the Philippines and Japan in upcoming months. The two countries forged a security pact in Tokyo in January that also confirmed regular meetings between vice ministers regarding defense. Additionally, Tokyo military medical professionals have offered help in advising Vietnamese submariners on avoiding decompression sickness.

Though Japan doesn’t have a vested interest in the South China Sea, it does have experience in dealing with China when it comes to disputed territories. China and Japan both lay claim to a cluster of islands in the East China Sea known as the Diaoyu (Chinese) and the Senkaku (Japanese). The islands have been a point of contention between the two governments and the problem has proliferated to also become a dispute between citizens. Though it seems like China is taking on most of Asia when it comes to its territorial claims, China’s military prowess in the region outnumbers most of its neighbors by a long shot.

Japan’s increased involvement reflects calls made by U.S. military officials earlier this year. “I think allies, partners and friends in the region will look to the Japanese more and more as a stabilizing function,” Adm. Robert Thomas, commander of the Seventh Fleet and the top U.S. naval officer in Asia, said in a separate Reuters report. “In the South China Sea, frankly, the Chinese fishing fleet, the Chinese coast guard and the [navy] overmatch their neighbors.”

China’s control over the area, in the form of dredging to erect a man-made island in the middle of the disputed Spratly Islands, overshadows attempts made by the Philippines to go to international courts in The Hague, Netherlands, to settle the dispute.

Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=79638.0

The cooperation is also in line with a more muscular security policy advocated by Abe, who wants to loosen the restraints of Japan’s pacifist postwar constitution, and dovetails with Washington’s “pivot” towards Asia.

“The trend is becoming clear and I don’t think they (Japan) are going to back down from it, despite Chinese concerns,” said Ian Storey, a regional security expert at Singapore’s Institute of South East Asian Studies.

China’s Foreign Ministry said it hoped Japan would “speak and act cautiously” over the South China Sea, adding Tokyo was not a party to the dispute.

During World War II, the Imperial Japanese Navy operated submarines from the Spratly archipelago in the heart of the South China Sea. China is now creating artificial islands from reefs and atolls in the disputed Spratlys so fast that Beijing will be able to extend the range of its navy and air force before long, experts say.

Some experts believe the new islands will allow China to create and police an air defense identification zone (ADIZ), where planes would have to identify themselves to Chinese authorities, although Beijing has routinely denied such speculation.

China sparked condemnation from Tokyo, Washington and Canberra when it imposed an ADIZ above the East China Sea in late 2013. While the militaries from both countries have ignored that zone, it might not be so easy for smaller Southeast Asian nations to do so should one exist in the South China Sea.

“An ADIZ would be a catastrophe. It would severely limit air and maritime activity,” a senior Japanese policymaker said on condition of anonymity.


Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=79638.0