History Won’t Hold Them Back-Japan Steps Up To Counter Chinese Regional Play For Resources
China has woken up the whole region, and climate change ratchets up the tension with a slow certainty.
Announcing the dispatch of Japanese Coast Guard vessels to Vietnam, the Philippines, and Indonesia, Mr. Abe said Japan “intends to play a more active and proactive role” in the region and issued strong, if veiled criticism of China’s recent behavior in pressing its maritime territorial claims.
“Japan will offer its utmost support for the efforts of ASEAN countries as they work to ensure the security of the seas and the skies and maintain freedom of navigation and of overflight,” he said, referring to the Association of South East Asian Nations.
In a keynote speech to the Shangri La Dialogue, an annual forum for Asian defense and security specialists, Abe acknowledged that a number of the countries in the region that he would like to befriend had bitter memories of Japanese occupation during World War II.
But since the war, he insisted, “Japan has walked a path … abhorring war … and we will continue to walk that path for generations to come.”
More: In Jab at China, Japan’s Abe Promises Stronger Security Role in Asia