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.
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