Japan has increased security ties with Vietnam and other Asean nations in response to China’s military activities in South China Sea
PUBLISHED : 4 Dec 2025 at 19:02
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Koji Kano (right), Japan’s vice defence minister for international affairs, and Hiroyuki Namazu (second from right), Japan’s senior deputy foreign minister, meet with their Vietnamese counterparts at the Foreign Ministry in Tokyo on Thursday. (Photo: Kyodo)
KYODO — Japan and Vietnam agreed in high-level talks Thursday to give shape to security cooperation under their strategic partnership, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said, amid China’s growing assertiveness in the South and East China seas.
The agreement emerged from the first meeting between the two countries’ vice foreign and defence ministers, held under a framework established in April during then Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s visit to Vietnam.
The two sides discussed Japan’s official security assistance scheme for providing defence equipment to like-minded countries and affirmed the importance of realising a free and open Indo-Pacific in line with an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) initiative aimed at maintaining regional peace, freedom and prosperity.
Hiroyuki Namazu, Japan’s senior deputy foreign minister, and his counterpart Nguyen Minh Vu as well as Koji Kano, Japan’s vice defence minister for international affairs, and his counterpart Hoang Xuan Chien also discussed personnel exchanges, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief activities.
Japan has been ramping up security ties with Vietnam and other Asean members in recent years as China intensifies its military activities in the resource-rich South China Sea, home to one of the world’s busiest maritime sea lanes.
Vietnam has territorial disputes with China over the Spratly and Paracel island groups in the South China Sea, while Japan and China remain at odds over the sovereignty of the Japanese-administered Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, which China claims.
AloJapan.com