Japan considers sending navy to aid USA in South China Sea

On Thursday, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that “with regard to activity by the Self-Defense Forces in the South China Sea, I will consider it while focusing on what effect the situation has on Japan’s security”. The U.S.-guided missile destroyer USS Stethem arrived in Shanghai, China, on Monday, in the first such visit since the United States last month sailed the destroyer USS Lassen nearby a man-made island in the South China Sea that China claims as territory but that the United States contends is in worldwide waters.

“We have taken a significant step forward in enhancing our defence and security relations by agreeing in principal on the transfer of defence equipment and technology”, Aquino said.

“Recent hardening in the United States attitude towards China’s building of artificial islands … appears to be aimed at challenging China’s excessive maritime claims, deterring any acts of possible Chinese military adventurism and reassuring the Philippines and other U.S. allies and partners of its protection”.

Although Indonesia is not a claimant state in the territorial disputes in the South China Sea, it has been monitoring China’s development of infrastructure there, including rig and lighthouse construction, as well as its seismic surveys and fishing activities, according to an Indonesian government position paper.

The two leaders signed a document on Japan’s provision of low-interest loans worth a few ¥240 billion in total for a railway construction project in Manila.

Aquino said freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea must be in line with worldwide law.

The U.S. has called for a halt to China’s artificial island building, and in recent weeks has tried to signal its determination to challenge Beijing over the disputed sea by sending military ships and planes near the islands, moves heavily criticised by China.

“The reaction to what it has done in the South China Sea for the past two years or so, whether in Asean or around the world, seems to be a net minus for China’s image”, he said, referring to China’s creation of islands by reclaiming reefs in the South China Sea, whose sea lanes carry nearly US$5 trillion (S$7 trillion) worth of trade each year.

The Philippines is the Southeast Asian nation most at odds with China over the South China Sea.

China on Friday said it remained on “high alert” for intervention by Japan in the South China Sea issue, especially the country’s military return to the region.

The Japanese leader also supported the Philippines’ move to bring its territorial dispute with China to an global arbitral tribunal. Terrorism and disputes over the South China Sea are also on the agenda. He refused to discuss the issue when he hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Manila. Japan is also looking at providing warships to the Philippines to accomplish this mission.

In addition to seagoing units, the Japanese are said to be considering the delivery of either three used P3-C Orion or three TC-90 King Air aircraft for use in patrolling Philippine maritime claims.