Japan strengthens security partnerships with ASEAN nations to contain China: Analysts

Washington DC [US], December 15 :Japan has been enhancing its security ties with various Southeast Asian nations ahead of a Japan-ASEAN summit that is scheduled to be held in Tokyo from December 16-18. According to analysts, this forum is being held to offset China's aggressive behaviour in the region, VOA News reported.
Japan will host the ASEAN-Japan Commemorative Summit in Tokyo marking the 50th anniversary of ASEAN-Japan friendship and cooperation.
According to analysts, China despite not being present at the summit is likely to figure prominently during the talks, VOA News reported. Kingston, professor of history and Asian studies at Temple University, Japan Campus, said, Japan considers China's regional hegemonic ambitions as a "grave threat to its security.
In an email to VOA, Kingston said, "Japan regards China's regional hegemonic ambitions as a grave threat to its security and has actively worked to upgrade security partnerships ... to contain China in line with the US-backed free and open Indo-Pacific."
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Japan and 10 ASEAN nations want to expand relations at a time when "the free and open international order based on the rule of law is under serious challenge.
He said challenges in the Indo-Pacific include "attempts to unilaterally change the status quo by force" in the East and South China seas and "North Korea's increasing nuclear missile activities," according to VOA News report.
Kishida stressed that ASEAN is "the key for the realization of Japan's vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific," and added that the economic prosperity of ASEAN's 10 members "can only be achieved if the peace and stability of the region are protected."
Speaking to VOA News, Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, said "China is glad to see relevant countries and regional organizations develop friendly and cooperative relations." He further said, "But we hope that such relations would not target a third party and should contribute to regional peace, stability and prosperity."
In Japan, 76 per cent of adults consider China as a bigger threat than North Korea's nuclear weapons, according to a survey that the Pew Research Center conducted from June to September and released on December 5.
Japan has a territorial dispute with China over the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, known in China as the Diaoyu Islands. Notably, the Philippines and Vietnam also have maritime disputes with China in the South China Sea.
The Japanese Foreign Ministry raised "serious concern" on Wednesday about clashes between Chinese and Philippine vessels in the South China Sea, offering support to the Philippines' "long-standing objections to unlawful maritime claims, militarization, coercive activities" in the area.
Ahead of the summit, Japanese officials held meetings with several Southeast Asian nations to enhance their security ties.
On December 7, the Japanese Ambassador to Cambodia Atsushi Ueno held a meeting with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet in Phnom Penh. The two sides discussed developing closer security ties, including organizing joint naval exercises and army working group meetings.
On November 27, Japanese PM Fumio Kishida met Vietnam's President Vo Van Thuong in Tokyo and. The two sides upgraded ties between the two nations to a "comprehensive strategic partnership" and agreed to expand defence exchanges and transfers of defence equipment.
On November 3, Kishida and Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. agreed to negotiate a defence pact that would allow each country's troops to enter the other's territory for joint military drills. He further said that Japan would provide coastal surveillance radar and defence equipment to the Philippines, in addition to several patrol ships it has already provided.
Speaking to VOA via email, Daniel Sneider, lecturer in East Asian studies at Stanford University, said that Japan has "loosened some previous limits on security ties, including the supply of some weapons or defence-related equipment such as coast guard patrol ships, but it remains limited in scope."
Speaking to VIA via email, James Przystup, Japan chair at the US-based Hudson Institute, said that Japan's Official Security Assistance (OSA) is aimed at supporting Japan's free and open Indo-Pacific strategy that wants "to advance regional stability."
Temple University's Kingstone stressed that Japan's security ties with ASEAN nations are evolving. Kingstone added that the ties between the two sides "will depend on the comfort zone of regional partners" that so far have welcomed Japan's security assistance.
Ryo Hinata-Yamaguchi, senior non-resident fellow at the Atlantic Council's Indo-Pacific Security Initiative in the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, said Japan's security ties with ASEAN nations are not opposed to its pacifist constitution "nor the basic principles for self-defence."