Sept 12, 2021: Japan and Vietnam have agreed to boost cooperation amid concerns about China’s growing military influence, signing a new agreement that would enable Japanese-made defense equipment and technology to be exported to Hanoi.

Japanese Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi said Saturday’s agreement would take the two countries’ defense partnership to a new level and that Japan and Vietnam would deepen defense ties through multinational joint exercises and other means.

The Japanese Defense Ministry said in a statement that details of the transfer of specific equipment, including ships, would be decided in later talks.

Kishi’s meeting with his Vietnamese counterpart, Phan Van Giang, in Hanoi happened at the same time as a two-day visit to the Vietnamese capital by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

The Chinese diplomat wrapped up his visit by saying Beijing plans to donate three million doses of its coronavirus vaccine to Vietnam. He also said China and Vietnam should refrain from any unilateral actions regarding the South China Sea that could complicate the situation and magnify disagreements.

Vietnam has territorial disputes with China over the Spratly and Paracel island groups in the South China Sea.

In response to China’s increasing aggression in disputed waters, Japan’s Ministry of Defense said that Kishi and Giang would work together to maintain freedom of navigation and overflight in the Indian Ocean region, as well as cooperation in various defense areas, including cybersecurity. The ministry said Kishi expressed strongly Japan’s opposition to use of force or “any unilateral effort to escalate tensions.”

Japan and China are also embroiled in a territorial dispute, with Tokyo regularly protesting against the Chinese coastguard’s presence in the East China Sea near the Japanese-controlled Senkaku islands, which Beijing also claims and calls Diaoyu. Japanese officials say Chinese vessels routinely violate Japanese territorial waters around the islands, sometimes threatening fishing boats.

Vietnam is the 11th nation with which Japan has signed a defence equipment and technology transfer deal.

Tokyo is looking to expand military cooperation beyond its longtime ally, the United States, and has signed similar agreements with the United Kingdom, Australia, the Philippines and Indonesia.

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