Japan pledges fresh aid to Vietnam for security, maritime

Japan pledged $1.1bn to Vietnam yesterday as part of a sprawling aid package that targets maritime and security affairs to bolster ties in the face of regional powerhouse China.
Hanoi and Tokyo are locked in separate standoffs with Beijing over territorial claims in disputed regional waters, pushing the two countries closer in recent years.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced the 130bn yen loan package during a two-day visit to Vietnam, which is also aimed at boosting business ties with the fast-growing communist nation.
 “The two sides will further co-operation in security and defence,” Abe vowed in comments translated into Vietnamese adding that “newly-built patrol vessels” would be supplied to Hanoi.
 “Both sides agreed on the importance of ensuring the maritime security on the issue of the South China Sea and promoting to resolve conflict by peaceful means (and) respecting international law,” Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said.
Vietnam and China have traded barbs over disputed territory in the South China Sea, where Beijing has built islands capable of hosting military installations.
Tokyo has also sparred with Beijing over its territorial claims in the East China Sea, and both Japan and Vietnam have repeatedly stressed that maritime disputes should be addressed according to law.
Japan has made similar gifts of patrol vessels and aircraft to the Philippines which also has competing maritime claims with China. Climate projects and waste management were also included in the loan aid package announced yesterday on Abe’s trip, his third visit to Vietnam as prime minister.
Vietnam has come under fire for failing to enforce environmental regulations, especially in the industrial sector. Last year, Taiwanese steel firm Formosa was blamed for a toxic waste dump that killed tonnes of fish along Vietnam’s central coast.
Also high on the agenda were fresh investments from Japan, the world’s third largest economy that has been dragged down by a greying and shrinking population.
The deal included a Mitsubishi investment in a thermal power plant in central Ha Tinh province and a partnership between Japan’s Itochu and Vietnam’s Vinatex textile firms.
 Both sides also pledged to keep trade ties alive in the wake of a promise by US president-elect Donald Trump to scrap the massive Trans-Pacific Partnership on his first day in office. “We agreed on the importance of promoting the free trade mechanism like TPP,” Abe said.
 Tokyo is an increasingly vital ally to Vietnam – it is the country’s largest aid donor and the second largest foreign investor after South Korea. The leaders also announced a visit by Japan’s emperor and his wife in the spring, which Abe said would create “momentum for further ties”.
 Both leaders will attend an economic forum today before Abe returns to Japan.
 His six-day swing through Asia-Pacific also took him to the Philippines, Australia and Indonesia before his final stop in Vietnam.