Japanese warships yesterday docked in New Zealand’s capital for the first time in almost 90 years amid efforts by Tokyo to deepen its strategic ties in the South Pacific Ocean.
Two destroyers with more than 500 crew on board sailed into Wellington Harbour accompanied by the New Zealand Navy’s HMNZS Canterbury.
The JS Ise helicopter carrier and the JS Suzunami destroyer were on a deployment in the Indo-Pacific region and arrived from Sydney, where Japan’s military this month took part in war games involving New Zealand, Australia and other countries.
Photo: AP
The Wellington visit was a ceremonial one, but it came as Japan, whose only treaty ally is the US, has increasingly sought to deepen bilateral military cooperation amid ongoing regional tensions.
“Our defense force are developing cooperative work, not only with New Zealand and Australia, but also many Pacific island countries,” Japanese Ambassador to New Zealand Makoto Osawa told reporters. “Our main goal is the free and open Indo-Pacific.”
Osawa’s remarks followed an announcement on Tuesday by Australia’s government that Japanese firm Mitsubishi Heavy Industries had won the bid for a contract to build Australian warships, beating out a German firm.
While officials in Canberra said that the Japanese proposal was the best and cheapest, they also hailed it as the biggest defense industry agreement between the countries.
New Zealand, too, has sought to shore up its strategic and military relations in Asia as part of a foreign policy reset in the past few years that the government says has turned more attention on Pacific cooperation and security.
Officials in Wellington last month announced that work had started on a defense logistics agreement with Japan, intended to make it easier for the countries’ militaries to work together.
The last port visit to Wellington by a Japanese naval vessel was in 1936, New Zealand’s military said.
A Japanese ship visited New Zealand’s largest city, Auckland, in 2016.
DRONE CENTRAL: Taiwan aims to become Asia’s democratic hub for drones, with most exports focused on high-quality military-grade models, an official said Taiwan’s drone industry is expected to expand significantly by 2030, producing 100,000 units per month and exporting half of them, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Current drone production capacity is about 15,000 units per month, but the industry can quickly scale up as demand increases, Industrial Development Administration Director-General Chiou Chyou-huey (邱求慧) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s drone output grew 2.5-fold last year to NT$12.9 billion (US$408.3 million) under a government program to develop the uncrewed vehicle sector, he said. The Executive Yuan in October last year approved plans to invest NT$44.2 billion into domestic production of uncrewed aerial
WARNING: China should stop engaging in actions that undermine regional peace and stability, as it would only build resentment among people across the Strait, the CGA said China has deployed more than 100 navy, coast guard and other vessels in waters from the Yellow Sea to the South China Sea and the western Pacific since US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) met in Beijing, National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said yesterday. “In this part of the world, #China is the one & only PROBLEM wrecking the #StatusQuo & threatening regional peace & stability,” Wu wrote on X. In a separate post, he said Beijing was coercing Taiwan’s maritime domain, calling it illegal and provocative, after the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) expelled a
VERBOSE VESSELS: A CGA cutter and a China Coast Guard exchanged verbal barbs for more than a day in Taiwanese-controlled waters before the Chinese vessel left The Taiwanese and Chinese coast guards had a standoff near the strategically located Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the north of the South China Sea, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The two sides engaged in intense radio exchanges over sovereignty claims during the 33-hour standoff. China Coast Guard vessel 3501 eventually left the restricted waters, 26.6 nautical miles (49.2km) west of the Pratas Islands, at 5pm yesterday, the CGA said. Lying approximately between southern Taiwan and Hong Kong, the Taiwan-controlled Pratas are seen by some security experts as vulnerable to Chinese attack due to their distance — more than
More than 8,000 people took part in a rally in Taipei yesterday to express support for more defense spending, after the opposition slashed the Cabinet’s proposed NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.6 billion) special defense budget and capped it at NT$780 billion. The demonstrators urged the Cabinet to propose another bill. Taiwan Economic Democracy Union convener Lai Chung-chiang (賴中強) said the main problem of the passed budget plan is the removal of funding for critical items, not just that the total amount is smaller. Critical budget items included purchasing or developing uncrewed vehicles, Strong Bow (強弓) missile systems, additional ammunition, artificial intelligence-powered combat systems and Taiwan-US
RSS