Japan to supply new patrol boats to Vietnam: Abe

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe yesterday promised Vietnam six new patrol boats during a visit to the Southeast Asian country locked in a dispute with China over the busy South China Sea waterway.

Abe's stop in Vietnam completes a tour through an arc of a region where Japan stakes a leadership claim in the face of China's growing dominance and uncertainty over what policy change Donald Trump will bring as US president.

"We will strongly support Vietnam's enhancing its maritime law enforcement capability," Abe said, while emphasizing that the dispute over the South China Sea should be settled through talks and in accordance with international law.

China claims almost all the South China Sea, through which about $5 trillion worth of sea-borne trade passes every year. Vietnam and four other countries also have claims in the sea, believed to have rich deposits of oil and gas.

Tokyo has no territorial claims there, but worries about China's growing military reach into the sea lanes. Japan has a separate dispute with China over a cluster of tiny islets in the East China Sea.

In September, Japan had said it was ready to provide new patrol boats to Vietnam after earlier supplying six old vessels.

Maritime security and trade have been key themes during Abe's other stops - in Indonesia, the Philippines and Australia.

Given the readiness of the Philippines under President Rodrigo Duterte to move closer to the Chinese and further from its traditional US ally, Vietnam is one of fewer regional states showing potential readiness to confront China.

Uncertainty over US policy in Asia was amplified last week by comments from Secretary of State nominee Rex Tillerson that China must stop building islands in the South China Sea and that its access to those islands must not be allowed.