Japan is planning on upping its activities in the South China Sea through joint training patrols with the United States and exercises with regional navies, Japanese Defense Minister Tomomi Inada said.
(CNN)- Japan would also be giving military aid to countries such as the Philippines and Vietnam as it increases its role in the contested waters of the South China Sea, Inada said Thursday at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank in Washington, DC,
Inada also welcomed the US’s plan to allocate 60% of its Navy and Air Force assets to the Asia Pacific region by 2020.
Japan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and Taiwan are among a group of nations engaged in territorial disputes with China.
China says it owns the bulk of the South China Sea, pointing to a 1947 map to justify claiming territory that lies hundreds of miles to the south and east of its island province, Hainan.
The ongoing disputes have intensified as countries in the region build up their military defenses against China, and with Vietnamese fishermen who operate in the Paracel Islands — territory claimed by Vietnam, China and Taiwan — caught up in the fray.
In July 2016, an international tribunal in the Hague ruled in favor of the Philippines in a maritime dispute by concluding that China had no legal basis to claim historic rights to expansive territories in the South China Sea.
Inada mentioned how China’s recent activities in the East China and South China seas were “raising serious concern in the Asia-Pacific and beyond.”