Abe offers Japan's help in maintaining regional security | Japan Herald

Abe offers Japan's help in maintaining regional security

Japan Herald Friday 30th May, 2014

• The three-day summit involves the US and South-East Asian countries, and comes amid growing tensions between China, Vietnam and the Philippines.

• The conference is being attended by U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, who Friday met with his Japanese and Australian counterparts

• Abe said he wanted Japan to shed the passiveness that has marked its diplomacy after World War II and take more responsibility for maintaining regional stability

SINGAPORE - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe Friday pushed for a greater role for Japan in regional security and offered his country's help to regional partners "to ensure security of the seas and skies", in remarks that are sure to needle China.

Addressing the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, Abe said "Japan will offer its utmost support for the efforts of countries of ASEAN" and "work to ensure the security of the seas and the skies, and thoroughly maintain freedom of navigation and freedom of overflight."

The three-day summit involves the US and South-East Asian countries, and comes amid growing tensions between China, Vietnam and the Philippines.

Abe urged all nations to observe the rule of law and not use force or threats.

The conference is being attended by U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, who Friday met with his Japanese and Australian counterparts.

Abe said his government would support Vietnam and other nations that have territorial disputes with China by providing patrol ships, training and military surveillance equipment.

Abe said he wanted Japan to shed the passiveness that has marked its diplomacy after World War II and take more responsibility for maintaining regional stability.

He said Japan would cooperate with the United States and other like-minded nations like Australia and India to uphold international rule of law and freedom of navigation, and to discourage China's increasingly assertive efforts to take control of islands and expanses of ocean that are claimed by other Asian nations, including Japan.

"Japan intends to play an even greater and more proactive role than it has until now in making peace in Asia and the world something more certain," Abe said.

Chinese and Vietnamese ships clashed recently in disputed waters of the South China Sea after Beijing deployed a massive oil rig there. Earlier, the Philippines challenged the legality of China's maritime claims at an international tribunal in The Hague. Japan and China have also had discord over islands in the East China Sea.

Abe said Japan will provide 10 new coast guard patrol ships to Philippines, and that three such vessels have already been provided to Indonesia. Vietnam may receive similar assistance, he said.

"We do not welcome dangerous encounters by fighter aircraft and vessels at sea," Abe said, reiterating a call for both countries to establish a maritime and air communication mechanism in order to prevent unexpected situations.

Abe repeatedly used the phrase "rule of law" during his speech, urging nations to respect international norms in dealing with territorial rows.

"I urge all of us who live in Asia and the Pacific to each individually uphold these three principles exhaustively," he said at the Shangri-La Dialogue, a security forum involving defence chiefs, military officials and security experts.

"Movement to consolidate changes to the status quo by aggregating one fait accompli after another can only be strongly condemned as something that contravenes the spirit of these three principles," he said, without mentioning any country.