Japan Defense Ministry Boosting Aid to Pacific Island Nations

   Tokyo, July 3 (Jiji Press)--Japan's Defense Ministry is strengthening its security-related capacity-building support to Pacific island countries, in a bid to help them keep in check China, which is stepping up military expansion in the South Pacific.
   The ministry started this year to expand the scope of the aid, which includes personnel development and technical cooperation, to include support for the police and other security authorities in countries that do not have military forces.
   Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is expected to announce the nation's plans to deepen its security and defense cooperation with such island countries at the Pacific Islands Leaders Meeting, to be held in Tokyo from July 16 to 18.
   "They are important in light of maintaining and strengthening an open international order based on the rule of law," Defense Minister Minoru Kihara told a press conference Tuesday, referring to island countries in the South Pacific.
   Late last month, the ministry conducted a "Ship Rider Cooperation Program" in which military and police officials from island countries traveled from the U.S. territory of Guam to Japan aboard the Izumo destroyer of Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force.

(2024/07/03-10:30)

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