Destabilizing arc of aid

The Japanese government decided last year to provide the Philippines with 10 patrol vessels using the ODA budget, and is mulling over a similar offer to Vietnam.

"Helping the Philippines and Vietnam beef up their maritime security capabilities will help to ensure the safety of key sea lanes vital to maritime transport of trade and energy for Japan. Such strategic use of ODA must be expanded," a Yomiuri Shimbun's editorial said.

Though Japan's ODA budget has declined for years, Southeast Asian countries are among its top recipients, with Vietnam now the No 1.

Also in 2006, Abe proposed an Asia-spanning "arc of freedom and prosperity". Such an arc, he said, anchored in Japan, would spread its values and increasingly come to define Japan's foreign policy.

In his second term in office, he has already been working to establish this arc, visiting all 10 ASEAN nations during his first year and hosting a special ASEAN leadership summit in Tokyo.

Japan's ODA White Paper 2013 called the assistance to ASEAN an effective "investment in the future". Amid rapid changes in the international environment surrounding Japan, "it is necessary to support countries that share fundamental values such as freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law, as well as strategic values, as we deploy ODA strategically as a diplomatic tool," the document said.

Japan is using its ODA to build a quasi-coalition in Southeast Asia to support the US rebalancing to Asia and drive a wedge between the ASEAN countries and China.

Security-oriented ODA is a new, important dimension of how the US-Japan alliance is engaging with Southeast Asia. The Japan-US 2+2 Joint Statement of October 2013 emphasized the joint commitment to cooperation in security capacity building in the region.

In particular, it "welcomed the strategic use of ODA by Japan, such as providing coastal patrol vessels and training for maritime safety to regional partners, and recognized the importance of such endeavors in promoting regional peace and stability".

Japan has identified Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam as its key partners for active security reengagement.

The impetus Japan is giving to "strategic use" of its ODA is a sign that the economic assistance granted to the ASEAN countries, especially regarding the building of maritime capabilities, will grow in the coming years for political reasons. The design is misleading the region.

The author is China Daily's Tokyo bureau chief. caihong@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 07/11/2014 page8)