Tokyo (dpa) – Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Tuesday that his country will provide more patrol ships to Vietnam amid growing tensions in the South China Sea.
The premier made the announcement at a meeting with Nguyen Phu Trong, the visiting general secretary of Vietnam’s Communist Party, who arrived in Tokyo Tuesday for a four-day trip.
Trong said he and Abe “shared concerns about the complicated situation in the South and East China seas,” referring to China’s massive land reclamation work and building of military facilities in the area.
Reports earlier that day said that China appeared to be building an airstrip in the Spratly archipelago, a disputed region with overlapping claims by Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei.