Japan will give six navy boats to Vietnam to boost its
patrols and surveillance in the South China Sea, Japan’s foreign minister said
on Friday, in the latest sign of a strengthening of alliances between states
locked in maritime rows with China.
The used vessels, worth 500 million yen (£2.8 million),
would be accompanied by training and equipment to help the coastguard and
fisheries surveillance effort, Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said
after talks with Vietnamese counterpart Pham Binh Minh.
The deal represents a notable shift in the two countries’
close diplomatic and investment ties towards defence, a move likely to irk an
increasingly assertive China that is pressing hard on claims to nine-tenths of
the potentially energy-rich sea, and worrying much of the region.
To read the full article, click here.