Drills provide ‘opportunity for [Tokyo] to strengthen cooperation’ with allies, Japanese naval commander says
Japan’s biggest warship joined a British frigate for naval drills in the Indian Ocean on Wednesday as the latter was en route to the contested South China Sea, in the latest sign of Tokyo’s growing involvement in efforts to counter Beijing’s influence in the region.
The deployment of the Japanese helicopter carrier Kaga alongside the HMS Argyll came after the United States said it had sent B-52 bombers to conduct transit operations in the South China and East China seas.
Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Dave Eastburn said on Wednesday that the heavy bombers “took part in a regularly scheduled, combined operation in the East China Sea” on late Tuesday after flying through “international airspace over the South China Sea” earlier in the week.
Britain, Japan and the United States have found common cause in countering growing Chinese influence in the region, which they worry could put commercial sea lanes linking Asia with Europe, the US and elsewhere under Beijing’s sway.
“We have traditional ties with the British navy and we are both close US allies,” Kenji Sakaguchi, the naval commander of the Kaga group’s four helicopters. “These drills are an opportunity for us to strengthen cooperation.”
The more frequent presence of the British navy in the region was a chance for the two sides to train more closely together, he said.
The Argyll, Kaga and its destroyer escort, the Inazuma, practised formations on calm seas in the Indian Ocean close to commercial sea lanes plied by container vessels and oil tankers.
