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TOKYO: Japan’s new leader will aim to strengthen security ties when he visits Vietnam and Indonesia next week amid concerns about Beijing’s growing assertiveness, but is likely to steer clear of harsh anti-China rhetoric used by their American counterparts.
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, whose resume has little diplomatic experience, will follow in the footsteps of predecessor Shinzo Abe by making the two Southeast Asian nations the destination for his first overseas trip since taking office in September.
“I think it is important to show … we place more emphasis and importance on that region and we are interested in the security situation, especially in the South China Sea,” said former diplomat Kunihiko Miyake, Suga’s special adviser.
Suga will visit Vietnam, president of the 10-member ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), and Indonesia, its largest economy, on a four-day trip from Sunday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato announced on Friday.
Japan must balance its deep economic ties with China with security concerns, including Beijing’s push to enforce its claims on the disputed islands in the East China Sea.
Abe oversaw an improvement in ties, but some ruling party MPs want a tougher stance.
ASEAN members, many of whom have territorial disputes with China on vital waterways of the South China Sea, are wary of alienating a large economic partner and are reluctant to get caught up in an intense confrontation between the United States and China.
Scott Harold, associate director of the Asia-Pacific Policy Center at Rand Corporation, said Japan’s approach is to be firm, calm and promote its interests without asking countries to explicitly reject China.
Strengthening defense cooperation will be a “key point” of Suga’s trip to Vietnam following the port call last week of three Japanese ships at the country’s Cam Ranh naval base, said Ha Hoang Hop of the ISEAS Institute. Yusof Ishak based in Singapore.
China claims swaths of Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone, as well as the Paracel and Spratly islands, while Indonesia has been angered by the Chinese coast guard’s intrusions into its exclusive economic zone off the Natuna islands.
Japan plans to sign an agreement with Vietnam allowing it to export defense equipment and technology to the country, the Nikkei newspaper reported this week. A Japanese official said Japan was talking about improving defense cooperation with Hanoi and Jakarta, but could not comment on the results.
Suga’s trip follows last week’s Tokyo meeting of the “Quad,” an informal grouping of India, Australia, Japan and the United States, which Washington sees as a bulwark against China.
Beijing has denounced the Quad as a “mini-NATO” aimed at containing China.
Hop said Vietnam could back the Quad as the group becomes more inclusive and Beijing becomes more aggressive in the South China Sea. Indonesia, however, is cautious.
“Indonesia, which places great primacy on the centrality of ASEAN, is going to be very ambivalent about the Quad because it undermines that whole principle … They are unlikely to get on the quad bandwagon,” said Euan Graham of the International Institute of Strategic studies.
Suga’s visit also coincides with Japan’s efforts to diversify its supply chains and reduce dependence on China by bringing production home or locating more in Southeast Asia.
It will likely announce an expansion of Japan’s subsidies for production in Southeast Asia on its trip, the Nikkei said.
Vietnam is a popular choice for Japanese companies. Half of the 30 Japanese companies that took advantage of a 23.5 billion yen ($ 223.28 million) government plan to diversify supply chains in Southeast Asia headed for Vietnam, which has aggressively courted Japanese investment.
Only one chose Indonesia, where Japanese companies complain of a sometimes arbitrary regulatory environment, prompting Tokyo to call for improvements.
